Non-family and Family Social Contact for Youth with and without Disabilities

• In Event: Social and Emotional Wellbeing for Differently-abled Individuals and their Families

Abstract

Objectives

This study compares social contact patterns of adolescents with and without disabilities. Specifically, this study compares how much time youth with disabilities spends with family members (parents, siblings, and extended family members) and non-related people (friends and other non-relatives) compared to youth without disabilities.

Background

Social interactions play a crucial role in youth forming social skills (Guralnick, 2006). Acquiring social skills is associated with long-term life satisfaction and functioning in adulthood (Bildt, Serra et al., 2005; Kasari, 2016; Krieder, 2013). Circumstances surrounding social interactions and time spent alone often differ for adolescents with disabilities (Hamilton, 2015; Kasari, 2012). Past research suggests youth with disabilities have fewer opportunities for social interaction outside their immediate family (Hauser-Cram et al., 2009; Krieder, 2013), which may impact their social growth and development. In families with a child with a disability, little is known about day-to-day social contact patterns. Families provide strong support networks for adolescents with disabilities (Hauser-Cram et al., 2009), which may compensate for social contact deficits outside of the family. Other research suggests that due to the compounding effect of a disability and changes during adolescence, family members of youth with disabilities experience greater stress than other families (Hauser-Cram et al., 2009). This stress may lead adolescents with disabilities and family members to avoid social interaction with each other. Thus, open questions remain about the role of family members in facilitating social growth amid less contact outside the family.

Method

This study used the American Time Use Survey (2008-2019; Hofferth et al., 2019) to empirically evaluate the relationship between having a disability and social contact. The study used a nationally representative sample of youth ages 15-19 (N=6,696). Using Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis to control for socio-demographic factors, we compared youth with and without disabilities in their time spent alone and with parents, siblings, extended family members, friends, and other non-relatives.


Results

We found interesting areas of similarity and differences in social contact patterns. Regardless of disability status, adolescents spent similar time alone. However, when engaging in social contact, adolescents with disabilities differed from adolescents without disabilities in the types of people they spent time with. Those with disabilities spent less time with non-related people, primarily driven by differences in time with non-friends, such as coworkers, neighbors, and other acquaintances. However, adolescents with disabilities spent more time with relatives, including parents and cousins. Interestingly, time with siblings was similar in the two groups. These findings suggest that increased social contact with relatives offset lower social contact with non-relatives for youth with disabilities.


Conclusions

Disabilities were associated with more limited social contact outside of an adolescent’s family context. However, although social contact with non-relatives was low for adolescents with disabilities, families likely played a compensating role for youth with disabilities. Because limited opportunities to develop social skills when interacting with others has implications for youth development, social contact in families, including extended families, may be an underappreciated and important form of family support for youth with disabilities.

Authors

• Jocelyn Wikle, Brigham Young University
  Presenting Author

• Carrie Shandra, Stony Brook Unviersity
  Non-Presenting Author