This study explored how parents or caregivers of adolescents or adults with mild intellectual disabilities described the influence of faith communities on the Quality of Life (QOL) and its domains of spiritual, social, emotional, and physical wellbeing of their loved ones in this population in South-Central Florida. The QOL model that steered this…

Quality of life (QoL) is an essential measure when assessing health interventions. Most early interventions for preschool children on the spectrum evaluate the effects on autism symptoms. However, researchers increasingly believe that good interventions should also improve the QoL of these children. Domains of QoL among preschool children on the…

This article suggests that communities and social ties support the feeling of being meaningful. The theoretical concepts discussed here are social capital, community, and new forms of social ties. The data consists of 969 answers from citizens of different ages from three cities. Despite the possibilities of new global social ties, Finns seem to…

Background: People with learning disabilities have the right to choose where they live. However, evidence suggests people's choices are limited due to a shortage of housing. Methods: 200 Lives was a mixed methods research project, which evaluated supported living and residential care for people with learning disabilities in England; 107 people…

The author uses a dialogical autoethnographic approach informed by symbolic interactionist theory to examine the role of toys, play, and parenting decisions on his childhood development and adult opportunities and interests. He examines how self, others, social contexts, and objects, particularly toys and adult analogues for those toys, came…

Background: Persons with an intellectual disability are at a higher risk of experiencing adversities. The concept of resilience offers promising insights into facilitating personal growth after adversity. The current study aims at providing an overview of the current research on resilience and the way this can contribute to quality of life in…

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often at greater risk of experiencing stress and lower quality of life, in comparison to parents of typically developing (TD) children and other developmental disabilities. Despite vast literature on parental experiences in Western countries, little is known about this topic in Eastern…

The objective was to document the influence of face mask use by other people on communication experiences, participation in activities, and quality of life. Australian adults (n = 665) completed an online survey; 90.8% resided in a state with mandatory mask use outside the home and 44.1% self-reported hearing difficulties. Mask use was reported as…

Background: To encourage self-determination and address health disparities among persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, clinicians and researchers rely on self-reported measures like health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a theory-driven self-reported HRQoL measure for adults…

Quality of life (QoL) is a key outcome used to monitor service planning and delivery for individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Unfortunately, many current instruments used to measure QoL have psychometric and content limitations and none are suitable for use with individuals with the lowest levels of functioning and…

Despite recent developments in measurement tools to assess the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disability, little is known about the cultural aspects that affect their quality of life. This study examined the universal and cultural characteristics of the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disability in Denmark and…

Background: Participation is a central aspect of quality of life, and it is indicative of high-quality outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities. However, participation is difficult to achieve for adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Aim: To describe staff members' perceptions of what participation means for adults…

Background: The ASCOT-ER is an adapted easy-read version of the ASCOT-SCT4, a self-report measure of social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL) for social care evaluation. In this study, we investigated the instrument's feasibility, construct validity and factor structure. Method: Data were collected from 264 service users in England.…

This mixed methods study on postsecondary outcomes for individuals with disabilities focused on the experiences of young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and significant disabilities from their perspective. The research questions include understanding their overall quality of life (QOL), the supports, services, and…

Here, intelligence is taken to mean scores from psychometric tests of cognitive functions. This essay describes how cognitive tests offer assessments of brain functioning--an otherwise difficult-to-assess organ--that have proved enduringly useful in the field of health and medicine. The two "consequential world problems" (the phrase used…