Everyday Life of Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: Inclusionary and Exclusionary Processes Among Young Adults of Parents With Intellectual Disability

Ten young adults with an intellectual disability whose parents, too, have an intellectual disability were interviewed and completed questionnaires for this exploratory study aimed at charting their experiences of everyday life. Most of the participants reported high life satisfaction, especially with the domains of friends, leisure time, and family, and considered their families as a resource for their empowerment and development of resilience. The study participants' informal networks were composed of only a few individuals who, moreover, were mostly of dissimilar age and also included support professionals. The participants typically described themselves as excluded from others, an experience that was articulated most conspicuously in their narratives about the special schools they were attending.