Social networks and personal support from the perspective of young people with intellectual disabilities

ABSTRACT

A strong, stable social network constitutes a potential guarantee that people with intellectual disabilities can have natural supports throughout their lives that will help them in their process of social inclusion. Having a supportive social network is considered the pinnacle of social inclusion. But the social networks of people with intellectual disabilities are usually very limited, and their connections are mainly with family and professionals. Few studies have focused on analysing the social networks of young people with disabilities and the functional characteristics of these networks. In order to study the basic characteristics of the social networks of young people with intellectual disabilities, and specifically their perception of the support received, 13 young people between 18 and 27 years of age completed a questionnaire aimed at obtaining information on the size of their network, its composition, the types of relationship or bond, the types of support (instrumental, informational or emotional), as well as the structure of the network. The results obtained have made it possible to present guidelines aimed at enriching social networks and so increase the potential for social support.

KEYWORDS:

• Social networks
• personal support
• intellectual disability

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to all the participants and their support workers for their time and contribution. This work was supported by the MINECO (Spanish Public Science Foundation) (grant number EDU2017-84989-R).

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MINECO (Spanish Public Science Foundation) under [grant number EDU2017-84989-R]. The funding body have not imposed any restrictions on free access to or publication of the research data.