Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Publication Date
Spring 5-2024
Journal
Undergraduate Honours Theses
Abstract
The current research examined the difference in the perceptions of friendship quality and quantity between adults with and without intellectual disabilities (ID). The study comprised of 57 participants, 24 had ID, 32 did not. It was hypothesized that adults with ID would perceive themselves as having fewer friendships of less quality than adults without ID. Participants completed the Friendship Qualities Scale (FQS), a 23-item multidimensional instrument assessing the quality of participants relationships with their friends, two close-ended questions about perceptions of their friendship quality and quantity and two open-ended questions providing suggestions about how to improve friendship quality and quantity. The results showed that there were no differences in perceptions between participants with and without ID on the FQS dimensions: companionship, conflict, help, closeness, and security. There was also no difference in happiness ratings of friendship quality or quantity. Exploratory analyses examining the distribution of responses showed that participants with ID were more likely to select a response indicating greater happiness with their current number of friends compared to those without ID. In addition, more participants without ID selected responses indicating that they were unhappy with the quality of their friendships than those with ID. Friendship suggestions provided by participants had many similarities. Areas for future research include analyzing how people with ID perceive friendship, and how to encourage friendship between people with and without ID.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Notes
Thesis Advisor(s): Dr. Irene Cheung