Page 57 - Social networks of people with mild intellectual disabilities: characteristics and interventions

Network Characteristics, Satisfaction, Wishes and Quality of Life
To ensure a minimum of reliability and validity for the MSNA, the following were taken as starting points: (a) only information on network members with whom there is a direct connection should be provided; (b) the information obtained in such a manner is of a largely objective, factual nature; and (c) only information which is known for certain is provided with anything which is uncertain thus omitted (Baars 1994).
For the present study, the original form of the MSNA was adapted for use
with people with mild ID by simplifying the questions and using visualization.
First, a genogram (i.e. family tree) was used to map the characteristics of the participant’s family relations. Second, an ecogram was created to visualize the 3 remainder of the social network. Three expanding circles are placed around
the name of the participant who then maps his or her relations with friends, neighbours, colleagues, other acquaintances and professionals by pointing to
where a particular network member should be placed. The more important
the network member, the closer the name is written to the name of the participant. Finally responses with respect to the functional characteristics of
the participant’s social network were provided along a five-point scale with
the five response possibilities visualized as a stairway; the higher the score, the
higher the step on the stairway.
Satisfaction and wishes with regard to the social network
To assess the satisfaction and wishes of the study participants with regard to their social networks, we developed a questionnaire which consisted of questions about the network in general (‘How satisfied are you with your social network?’) and questions about the family, acquaintances and professionals in the network in particular (‘How satisfied are you with your network of family/ acquaintances/professionals?’). Responses were provided along a five-point scale with the five response possibilities visualized as a stairway as described elsewhere in this article. The participant was then asked: ‘What would make your network one step higher?’. These so-called ‘scaling questions’ have their roots in Solution Focused interviewing (de Jong & Berg, 2008) and gave us insight into the wishes of the participants with regard to their social networks.
Intellectual Disability Quality of Life-16
Quality of life was measured using the Intellectual Disability Quality of Life-16 (IDQOL-16) which consists of 16 questions which address psychological well-
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