Disability and social network. A comparison between children and adolescents with and without restricted mobility

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the social network (with particular emphasis on roles, relationships and activities) of school children and adolescents with restricted mobility (investigated group) with the social network of non-disabled school children and adolescents (comparison group). The group investigated consisted of 23 children and adolescents aged 7 to 19 years from northern Sweden. The results were compared with a group of 23 children and adolescents matched for age and gender from the same area. The children and adolescents were individually interviewed using the instrument “My social network.” The results showed that children and adolescents with restricted mobility had considerably fewer peers in their social network. Furthermore, these differences were greater among the adolescents. A plausible interpretation of these results is that there is a clear association between the number of peer relationships, accessibility to different surroundings and the possibility to perform various activities. How a social network that consists of members of the same age group affects children with restricted mobility is discussed according to Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory and the perspective of Oliver's (1996) social model of disability.