Views of Relationships With Others³⁸

Parents and family. WHO, in its 52-country research synthesis of factors related to adolescent health (World Health Organization 2002) has concluded that "families matter" in reducing the likelihood that adolescents will engage in substance abuse or early sexual activity and experience depression. Specifically, youth who form a positive relationship with parents and have parents who encourage self-expression are less likely to engage in these behaviors, whereas living in a family that experiences conflict is associated with a higher likelihood of risk-taking behavior. Positive parental relationships are thought to have this kind of effect because they provide a general sense of stability, a positive emotional bond, a structure of expectations for positive behavior, and an openess to guidance, training, monitoring, and supervision (Ferguson 2004). These findings are mirrored in a variety of studies in the United States (e.g., Jaccard, Dittus, and Gordon 1996; Jordan and Lewis 2005; Miller 1998; Smith et al. 1995). Reporting data from Add Health, Blum and Rinehart (1997) report that parent and child "connectedness," defined as the "degree of closeness, caring, and satisfaction with parental relationships [and] feeling understood, loved, wanted, and paid attention to by family members" (p. 15) is a significant positive factor that relates to greater emotional health among adolescents and a lower likelihood of involvement in violence, substance use, and early sexual activity.

Youth were asked to communicate the extent to which they feel cared about and paid attention to by their families, based on a 5-point scale-"very much" (5-points), "quite a bit," "somewhat," or "very little" or "not at all" (1 point). According to their own reports; more than 80 percent of youth with disabilities and youth in the general population feel that their parents care about them "very much" (figure 15); only 3 percent of each group report feeling their parents care about them "very little" or "not at all." Youth with disabilities are less likely to report that their family pays "very much" attention to them (59 percent) than that they are cared about "very much" (p < .001). Nonetheless, youth with disabilities are significantly more likely than youth in the general population to report a high level of attention from parents (p < .001). Feeling cared about and paid attention to are related; values on the 5-point response scale for the two items are correlated (r = .49, p < .001).

Figure 15: Youth with disabilities' reported feelings of being cared about by parents and paid attention to by their families

Friends. Relationships with friends also have been found to be associated with youth behaviors in either a prosocial or antisocial direction (e.g., Boyce and Rose 2002; Smith et al. 1995). An examination of youth's perceptions of being cared about by friends reveals that their views are quite similar to their reports of being cared about by adults; 51 percent of both youth with disabilities and youth in the general population say friends care about them "very much" and about one-third (31 percent and 34 percent, respectively) say they are cared about "quite a bit." Six percent and 2 percent of the two groups report being cared about by friends "very little" or "not at all." Further, a large majority of youth with disabilities (77 percent) believe they can "find a friend" when they need one (figure 16). In addition, almost three-fourths (71 percent) of youth with disabilities feel confident that they "can make friends easily," whereas 5 percent indicate they are not confident of that at all.

Figure 16: Youth with disabilities' reported views of friends

Correlations between these views of friendships are statistically significant. Youth with disabilities who report feeling cared about by friends also tend to say they can make friends easily and find a friend when they need one (r = .22 and .18, p < .001), and those report being able to make friends easily also are more likely to stay they can find a friend when they need one (r = .27, p < .001).

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