Two Mildly Retarded Samples: A 20-Year Follow-Up

描述（由申请人提供）：本次修订提交的总体目标是使用生命过程发展视角对中年轻度智障成年人进行人种学调查。参与者将来自低收入和工人阶级的非裔美国人和工人和中产阶级白人在洛杉矶地区谁最初研究了我们的研究小组在1978年。2002年，年龄在41岁至59岁之间的大约三分之二的幸存者是这次调查的重点。由于两个样本中种族和类别的混杂，因此未提出此类维度的比较。相反，我们计划检查和比较每个组内以及早期和后期研究期间的适应行为。本研究有四个具体目标：1。研究生活质量是如何描述和评估的非洲裔美国人和白色中年成人标记为轻度智力迟钝; 2。研究生活质量与社会文化方面的发展之间的非洲裔美国人和白色中年成年人标记为轻度弱智; 3。描述发展途径在同一样本的成年人在规范的发展标记-特别是，社会关系，家庭的形成，教育和工作经验，危机管理和适应更普遍; 4。在相同的样本中检查整个生命过程中获得和使用社会服务的情况。使用民族志的方法，我们计划采访和观察30名非洲裔美国人和30名白色参与者的139人谁参加了我们早期的研究轻度弱智成人的适应。调查领域将包括生活质量，发展标志和过渡，社会支持网络，生活目标，健康和服务使用。分析策略包括民族志内容分析（Crabtree &米勒，1992）、序列分析和一致性分析。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this revised submission is to conduct an ethnographic investigation of mildly mentally retarded adults during their mid-life years using a life-course developmental perspective. The participants will be derived from samples of low-income and working class African-Americans and working and middle-class Whites in the Los Angeles area who were initially studied by our research group in 1978. The approximately two-thirds of the survivors who will be age 41 through 59 in the year 2002 are the focus of this investigation. Due to the confounding of race and class in the two samples, no comparisons on such dimensions are proposed. Rather, we plan to examine and compare adaptive behavior within each group and between the earlier and later study periods. The study has four specific aims: 1. To examine how quality of life is described and assessed by African-American and White mid-life adults labeled as mildly mentally retarded; 2. To examine quality of life as related to sociocultural aspects of development among African-American and White mid-life adults labeled as mildly mentally retarded; 3. To describe developmental pathways in the same samples of adults in terms of normative developmental markers--in particular, social relationships, family formation, educational and work experiences, crisis management and adaptation more generally; 4. To examine in the same samples access to and use of social services across the life course. Using ethnographic methods, we plan to interview and observe 30 African-American and 30 White participants of the 139 people who participated in our earlier study of the adaptation of mildly mentally retarded adults. Domains of inquiry will include quality of life, developmental markers and transitions, social support networks, life goals, health, and service usage. Among the analytic strategies to be employed are ethnographic content analysis (Crabtree & Miller, 1992), sequential analysis, and consensus analysis.