Stuck in Transition With You: Families in the Transition to Adulthood for Men with Mobility Impairments

• In Event: 2449 - Disability and Society: Systemic Supports, Barriers, and Inequality

Abstract

The transition to adulthood has been characterized by liminality insofar as its very premise is the process of shifting from an adolescent role to a fully-adult status. For people with disabilities, this liminality can, and often does, last significantly longer as the traditional markers of the transition to adulthood are out of reach for this population. Important work has identified that parents are conduits of social and economic capital for their children with disabilities, however little attention has been given to how adult-children with disabilities make sense of and experience parents during the transition to adulthood. My qualitative research using life-history interviewing and ethnographic go-alongs identifies that some individuals with disabilities see their parents as both integral to their development and limiting in their independence in very specific ways. Routine care carried out by parents leave adults with disabilities with a longing for an adulthood of their own, straddling the line of dependence and independence. The material support of housing and medical care uniquely tie adults with disabilities to their parents.
The housing market lacks sufficient accessibility measures, especially in rental housing, prolonging the time spent in natal homes. Service coordination, especially for personal care attendants, is significantly limited, leaving parents the responsibility of care, limiting attainment of adulthood. Importantly, my participants identify the ability to root in their natal homes before transitioning to adulthood, further limiting their achievement of traditional markers of the transition to adulthood including independent living. Even for those participants who do achieve independent living, they face an unrelenting housing market, evictions, and perpetual inaccessibility. Recent theorization of the transition to adulthood for people with disabilities suggests that there is a thrust into adulthood, and my findings critique this theorization as I show that this thrust is significantly stalled by limited options and constructed parental dependence.

Author

• James Dalton Stevens, Syracuse University