How should we support families of people with intellectual disability to promote their self-determination? A Delphi study on critical components for intervention

ABSTRACT

Background and aims

Self-determination related skills are central for achieving a life of quality for people with intellectual disability and develop as the person interacts with his/her contexts, such as home. As such, families are crucial agents in supporting the self-determination of their children with intellectual disability, although to date, little is known about how to support those families.

Methods

To address this need, the present study used a Delphi technique to build and reach a consensus on the critical components that should inform interventions targeting families to promote their children’s self-determination.

Results

Academics and professionals participated in this three-round Delphi study that concluded with a 90-item list of critical components for intervention, concretely relating to general principles, format, content, and methodology.

Conclusions

This knowledge has the potential to guide emergent intervention initiatives to support families in fostering their children’s self-determination. Implications for research and practice fields are provided and discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-determination
• families
• intellectual disability
• intervention

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the experts’ participation and Dr. Sergi Fàbregues for his initial support in this study design.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Authors contributions

Cristina Mumbardó-Adam: Conceptualisation; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Resources; Software; Supervision; Visualisation; Roles/Writing – original draft. Araceli Arellano: Conceptualisation; Data curation; Formal analysis; Resources; Software; Supervision; Visualisation; Roles/Writing – original draft. Eva Vicente: Conceptualisation; Investigation; Methodology; Resources; Supervision; Visualisation; Writing – review & editing. Ana Berástegui: Conceptualisation; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Supervision; Writing – review and editing.