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SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF COMMUNITY REINTEGRATION FOR MENTALLY RETARDED CITIZENS: A RETROSPECTIVE INVESTIGATION
Abstract
Studies of population reduction (deinstitutionalization) have focused on the movement of mentally retarded persons from public institutions into group homes, foster homes, and other residences in communities. This study of seven selected characteristics of 231 active and 78 terminated clients from an eastern Nebraska Community based mental retardation service systems focused instead on movement back into the nuclear family or to a state of adult independence. The active and terminated clients were compared singly and together according to age, sex, race, level of functioning, distance of residence from family home, length of residence outside family home, and number of unrelated persons living together in the residence (last agency residence used for terminated group). It was hypothesized that those seven characteristics would be related to likelihood of return to one's home. It was also felt that residential service providers could manipulate client selection, placement, and programming in a way to maximize the likelihood of return to, and acceptance by, the natural home environment if the impact of the seven characteristics was known. Examination of these seven characteristics indicated that the older and more capable persons were terminated before the younger and less capable ones. Race and sex tended to be unrelated to movement, although active females tended to be in residence longer than active males. On the basis of functioning levels, more capable persons remained in the agency as long as their less capable fellow residents. This finding was not expected. Older and more capable persons were more likely to have lived in a smaller residence at termination than younger capable residents. They were also more likely to have lived closer to their natural home at time of termination. Among active clients no relationship existed between age and distance from home. Size of residence was positively correlated with likelihood of termination; thus, the terminated residents tended to be from smaller residences than their active counterparts. When controlling for functioning level, age, sex, and race. However, proportionately larger numbers of clients with lower levels of functioning lived in homes with the largest number of persons. Length of residence outside the family home was significant only in regard to sex, males tending to remain in residences longer than females. While this study had as its primary purpose the analysis of characteristics related to reintegration of residential clients into normative living environments, the review of literature section also analyzed some aspects of the deinstitutionalization movement in the field of mental retardation. Research emphasizing relationships between large congregate living environments and the cognitive/affective development of persons with mental retardation was analyzed. Based on that analysis, the conclusion reached by this researcher was that institutional environments are detrimental to healthy human development.
Subject Area
Special education
Recommended Citation
SKARNULIS, EDWARD RUSSELL, "SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF COMMUNITY REINTEGRATION FOR MENTALLY RETARDED CITIZENS: A RETROSPECTIVE INVESTIGATION" (1980). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8021355.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8021355