Age-Related Features of Perceptions about Personal Security in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The paper studies the way younger and older adolescents with intellectual disabilities perceive their personal security. The research data were collected by formalized interview, subjective scaling techniques, analysis of personal files, observation diaries, etc. The obtained information was processed using the methods of content and frequency analyses, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Spearman’s rank correlation, and the chi-square distribution. The perception of personal security included such concepts as threat, defense, security, and subjective personal security. The study revealed significant differences between younger and older adolescents in their perception of danger, threat, defense, security, and responsibility for personal security. Children with intellectual disabilities developed ideas about personal security in adolescence, their perception of threat and defense depended on life experience and socialization. Their categorical structure corresponded to the norm but was inferior in terms of generalization and cognitive complexity. They separated threat and defense from security, which they associated with safety rules. The results could be included in programs of corrective psychological and pedagogical support.

Keywords

• perceptions of personal security
• security psychology
• correctional psychology
• age psychology
• intellectual disabilities
• mental retardation