Family based social capital of adults with mild intellectual disabilities supported in 24-hour residential settings compared to outreach settings

Abstract

To enhance social inclusion of people with (mild) intellectual disabilities, policy tends to focus on increasing their informal supportive networks. Family members, mostly parents, are often the main providers of informal support to people with mild intellectual disabilities. Previous research has shown the utility of social capital as a theoretical framework to examine support in the family relationships of people with mild intellectual disabilities, and has shown that several features of the family-based social capital of people with mild intellectual disabilities are dependent on support and living arrangements. However, existing research on support and living arrangements does not take the key features of family-based social capital (i.e., bonding and bridging social capital, reciprocity) into account. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to examine the family-based social capital of people with mild intellectual disabilities supported in 24-h residential settings (n = 29) versus outreach support settings (n = 45). All participants were individually interviewed about their family support relationships using the Family Network Method-Intellectual Disability (FNM-ID). Data were analyzed quantitatively using social network analyses and group comparisons. No significant differences between the two subgroups were found in the social network measures: the two subgroups did not differ in their experience of bonding and bridging social capital, nor in terms of the experienced reciprocity in their family relationships. However, a few differences in the composition of the family network were found. While people with mild intellectual disabilities in outreach support settings were more likely to include children in their significant family network and to provide support to parents, participants in 24-h care settings were more likely to report extended family as significant family network members.