Page 21 - Social networks of people with mild intellectual disabilities: characteristics and interventions

General Introduction
generally mean ‘mild to borderline ID’. Until now a comprehensive picture of
the characteristics of the social networks of people with mild ID from their 1 own perspective has been lacking. First, research on social networks and
well-being from the perspective of the people with ID themselves is sparse
(Emerson & Hatton 2008), even though it is important that they are asked to
give their own views (e.g. Roeleveld et al., 2011, Verdugo et al., 2005). Next,
the functional characteristics of the social networks have been examined less
often than the structural characteristics (Lunsky, 2006) and research on the
structural characteristics has been mainly into the size and composition of the
networks. Little attention has been paid to other structural characteristics, such
as accessibility, length of the relationships or the frequency and initiation of
the contacts. In addition, little attention has been paid to the satisfaction of
people with ID with their social networks or their wishes with regard to such.
There is some evidence of an association between perceived support and QOL
(e.g. Bramston et al., 2005; Miller & Chan, 2008; Lunsky & Benson, 2001), but
systematic investigation of the characteristics of social networks in relation
to their perceived QOL is lacking. Additionally, data on both structural and
functional characteristics are difficult to interpret because normative data are
lacking. Finally, little is known about the experiences of people with mild ID
and their support workers with network interventions and the effect of these interventions.
Therefore this thesis has two aims. The first aim is to provide a comprehensive picture of the specific network characteristics from the perspectives of people with mild ID themselves. The second aim is to gain insight into network interventions and how well they succeed. With these aims in mind, we pose the following research questions. What are the specific network characteristics and specific network perceptions of people with mild ID? What are the experiences of professionals with regard to strengthening and expanding the social networks of clients with mild ID? What are the results of a social network intervention, aimed at enhancing social networks of people with mild ID?
We focus on the social networks of adults with a mild ID, without additional behaviour problems, living in the community on their own (i.e. not with parents, not in group homes) receiving visiting support from professionals. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part contains three chapters (chapters 2, 3 and 4) and focuses on the network characteristics from the perspective of people
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