Background: Spirituality and spiritual support for older people with intellectual disability are deemed important, however little is known about their specific needs. This paper reports for the first time on the religious and spiritual practices of older adults with intellectual disability. Methods: A national longitudinal study examined the…

Background: Friendship is important to quality of life, yet people with intellectual disability have more restricted social networks and fewer friends outside family and support staff. Method: Data from a nationally representative longitudinal study of older adults with intellectual disability (aged >40) examined rates and types of friends.…

Background: The transition from adolescence to adulthood typically involves exploring living options. However, there is very little research focusing specifically on the views of young adults with intellectual disabilities on this topic. This article contributes to this topic by exploring the views of Irish young adults with intellectual…

Background: There is a wealth of research on adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) covering a large range of topics such as obesity, speech and language, education and health-related quality of life. However, for quality of life, much of the available literature for adolescents with DS relies on parent proxy reporting. This results in more research…

Background: There is increasing recognition that dysphagia has significant implications for a person's psychological well-being, social participation and quality of life (QOL). However, a paucity of research exists regarding the clinical management of this area. To inform future research and the development of appropriate and beneficial resources…

Retirement is now considered a process rather than a single event. Pathways to retirement are evolving and the retirement experiences of academics are becoming increasingly relevant given the aging academic workforce in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwide. Academic retirement studies highlight that most academics continue to work in…

Via diverse content including programmes, songs and child-led social media channels, children are constantly exposed to commercially funded messages encouraging purchase behaviour. While there is no definitive agreement that advertising to children is detrimental to their wellbeing (Rowthorn, 2019), there is an enduring concern over the unintended…

This paper is a historical review, documenting the evolution of Home Economics as a subject in Irish primary and post-primary education from the 1800s to the twenty-first century. In the 1800s and early twentieth-century domestic subjects, including cookery, was widely taught to females in both primary and post-primary schools. The philosophical…

Background: Respite care is an essential support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families; however, there is limited evidence examining different models of respite care. The present research examined quality of life among adults with intellectual disabilities using three different models of respite services in Ireland. Method:…

A wide array of digital supports (such as apps) have been developed for the autism community, many of which have little or no evidence to support their effectiveness. A Delphi study methodology was used to develop a consensus on what constitutes good evidence for digital supports among the broader autism community, including autistic people and…

This paper draws on exploratory research with Irish Traveller children. Using photographs taken by the children themselves to foreground both the 'good' things and 'things they would like to change' in their everyday lives, issues of family, home and, connectedness, love, and care emerged alongside deeply embedded (and embodied) experiences…

This study employs a multiple baseline across individual design to describe the implementation of positive behavioural supports for seven children and adolescents in residential community settings over a period of 24 months. These individuals with intellectual disability are residing in one county with long-standing challenging behaviour resulting…

The objective of our research is to analyse career dissatisfaction through the psychoanalytical lens of Jacques Lacan. Taking a multiple-case study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven male, senior managers working in the highly competitive technology industry. We found that respondents are defining satisfaction against a…

Previous research has highlighted that while involvement in Special Olympics can have benefits for athletes and their families, there can also be many barriers to participation. This qualitative study, which was part of a large mixed-method study, examined the experiences and perspectives of people with intellectual disability, their families and…

Background: Measures of quality of life (QOL) must be appropriate for specific groups but comparable across groups. In this paper, we compared how QOL is measured in research with older adults with and without an intellectual disability (ID). Methods: Measures used in 2 population studies of older adults with and without ID (Intellectual…