Page 93 - Social networks of people with mild intellectual disabilities: characteristics and interventions

Comparison of Social Networks
questions were not too difficult, in the section on wishes several participants couldn’t give an answer or specific wishes. Although it is possible that they indeed did not have any wishes, we have to consider the possibility that for some participants these questions were too complicated or too abstract. Overall, future research with other groups of participants is recommended. Gathering additional data from proxies is also recommended, when future results involves people with more severe ID or ASD.
Moreover, we did not focus on stressful characteristics of the network members, such as conflicts or the presence of ID, ASD or behavioural problems in network members. As such, network members can have a harmful rather than a beneficial influence (Lunsky & Havercamp, 1999). It is important to focus more on these issues, because it provides insight into the vulnerability of the network.
In this type of research it is always a challenge to obtain data from a sample 4 size large enough to have sufficient power. Our sample size of 105 spread over
three groups (ID, ASD and the reference group) gave a power of .80 and an
effect-size of .30. This is slightly higher than .25, which is classified as a medium
effect by Cohen (1992). Because differences with a small effect will not have been picked up in this study, we recommend repeating the study with a larger sample size.
Finally, this study does not indicate whether social inclusion for people with ID or ASD living in the community is a realistic possibility. Can network interventions alter social networks? In what way does training about networks affect the lives and social networks of people with disabilities? Relevant questions, requiring future research, because there is a critical need for evidence-based interventions to address social inclusion (Friedman et al., 2013).
4.4.3 Practical implications of the study
It has been shown that social support benefits both physical and mental health and is related to lower rates of morbidity and mortality in the general population (e.g. Cohen & Wills, 1985; Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010; Umberson & Montez, 2010). Although there is no evidence yet for this benefit in people with ID (Emerson & Hatton, 2008; Hulbert-Williams, Hastings, Crowe, & Pemberton, 2011), associations between social support and quality of life for adults with ASD (Khanna, Jariwala-Parikh, West-Strum, & Mahabaleshwarkar, 2014; Renty
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