Thesis advisor: Penny Hauser-Cram / This study involves secondary analysis of data from the Early Intervention Collaborative Study (EICS; Hauser-Cram, Warfield, Shonkoff, & Krauss, 2001), a longitudinal investigation of children with disabilities and their families. Presented is a mixed methods investigation of the relationship between future planning issues and sibling relationship quality when the teen with a disability (DD) was in adolescence (15 and 18 years old). First, future planning issues were examined contemporaneously with sibling relationship quality using hierarchical regression. Second, future planning issues from when the teen with DD was 15 years old were investigated in their relation to change in sibling relationship quality from ages 15 to 18 using lagged OLS regression. Third, qualitative content analysis was used to analyze sibling responses to a series of open-ended questions concerning the future at age 15 (1 question) and age 18 (4 questions). Siblings were asked "what have you learned by living with your brother or sister?" at both time points. In the first set of analyses, discussion of the teen's needs with parents, teen functional skills, sibling gender match, and sibling expectation of future roles were found to significantly relate to sibling relationship cooperation when the teen was 18. Additionally, sibling birth order was related to sibling conflict at age 18. In the second set of analyses, sibling relationship closeness was found to decrease over adolescence and sibling pessimism at age 15 was found to negatively relate this decrease. Finally, in the results for the qualitative analysis, various themes in sibling responses are discussed. More specifically, patterns arose in the change of sibling responses: trends reflecting a decrease in sibling relationship closeness, trends reflecting increasing role asymmetry in the sibling relationship, and trends reflecting sibling development. Future research must further examine the sibling relationship by using a developmental perspective and by taking into account the dynamic nature of sibling roles. The findings support the design of family-based interventions that address future planning explicitly with siblings and parents. Finally, improving the current resources and support for siblings may potentially increase siblings' perception of sibling relationship quality in these sibling pairs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

This study focuses on parental future planning for adults with intellectual disabilities. In recent years, the need for parents to engage in future planning for their offspring with intellectual disabilities has been increasingly emphasized. Within the literature, a number of approaches to future planning have been identified, including both formalized approaches (i.e., creating clear, explicit, and largely unchanging plans for the future of the individual with an intellectual disability) and more informal approaches (i.e., designating a person or a group of people to oversee the well-being of the individual with an intellectual disability without necessarily providing specific guidelines relating to the individual’s future care). Despite growing understanding that parents may approach developing future plans in different ways, to date, research on future planning has largely been focused on exploring formalized, concrete approaches to future planning. Using an Interpretive Description methodology, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 parents of adults with intellectual disabilities, this study sought to gain a greater understanding of parental future planning in real life practice in the province of British Columbia. Results revealed that while the parents in this study often utilized several future planning approaches -- both formal and informal -- when engaged in planning, they could be classified into two broad categories: Concrete Planners and Informal Planners. In addition, the results of this study also highlight key factors that may distinguish between parents who plan more formally and parents who plan more informally. Overall, these result highlight important avenues for future research and policy and practice; which, ultimately, may lead to important changes regarding how best to support aging parents of adult children with intellectual disabilities as they face the challenging task of planning for the post-parental care phase of their adult child’s life. / Graduate / megan.caines@gmail.com

For parents caring for an intellectually or developmentally disabled child (I/DD), there can be many challenges throughout various life stages. While research has been shown to emphasize an abundance of services for parents of young children and adolescents with I/DD, there has been a lack of services for later life transitions within adulthood. Within this research, a brief literature review of what preparation and services have been provided to parents of adult children with I/DD in regard to non-parental care placement is provided. The following research discusses the various perspectives of the future planning process through interviews from participants who identify themselves as a primary caregiver of their adult child with I/DD and who are 45 years of age or older. This research also discusses the results, limitations, recommendation for social work practice, and research conclusion.

Ateities lūkesčių, tikslų ir planavimo tyrimai yra labai svarbūs, ypač siekiant padėti paaugliams susidoroti su vis didėjančiais reikalavimais ir išbandymais bei siekiant sumažinti dėl jų kylančią įtampą ir įvairias problemas. Remiantis J.E. Nurmi (1991, 1993), tam tikri ateities planavimo sunkumai gali būti rimtas signalas apie kitas paauglių problemas, taigi akivaizdu, kad sėkmingas paauglio funkcionavimas yra susijęs su ateities planavimu ir tikslų kėlimu. Ateities orientacijos samprata šiame darbe apima ateities tikslus, lūkesčius ir su tuo susijusį nerimą, baimę, taip pat strategijas, būdus, padedančius siekti numatytų tikslų, bei patį ateities orientacijų procesą, kurį sudaro trys etapai – motyvacija, planavimas ir įvertinimas, o tam didelę įtaką daro kognityvinės strategijos, kurios lemia tai, kaip asmuo vertins savo galimybes pasiekti tikslų, kokiais būdais jų bus siekiama ir panašiai. Analizuojant ateities planavimą, svarbūs faktoriai yra ateities lūkesčių turinys bei planuojamo laiko perspektyva (Nurmi, 1991, 1993, 1995; Ruiz, Llinares, Zacares, 2003). Tyrime siekiama atskleisti, kokie ateities planavimo ypatumai būdingi sunkumų turintiems (depresija sergantiems, elgesio ir valgymo sutrikimų turintiems) paaugliams, išnagrinėti, kuo skiriasi sunkumų turinčių ir sveikų paauglių ateities planavimas bei kokie yra skirtumus lemiantys veiksniai. Tyrimo metu buvo naudojamas ,,Ateities vilčių ir baimių klausimynas“ (Nurmi, Poole, Seginer, 1992), kurio pagalba buvo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / SUMMARY Research on how adolescents see their future and what goals and plans they set for the future are extremely important in order to help adolescents to cope with increasing demands and tension they inflict. According to J.E. Nurmi (1991, 1993), various difficulties in formulating future plans can be an important indicator of other problems adolescents face. It is obvious, that adolescents‘ future-oriented decisions crucially influence their lifes, furthermore it is normative age-specific task. That is why analysis of future expectations, specific to problematic adolescents, is so important. In this research future-orientation is described in terms of three psychological processes, motivation, planning and evaluation, which is highly influenced by cognitive strategies that moderate the process of evaluating one‘s abilities and setting strategies to achieve goals. The content and time perspective are also important factors of future-orientation (Nurmi, 1991, 1993, 1995; Ruiz, Llinares, Zacares, 2003). This research reveals future expectations specific to problematic (i.e. those who suffer from depression, conduct disorder and eating disorders) adolescents; how they differ from their healthy peers and what factors contribute to these differences. Measure instrument used to find out adolescents‘ goals was „Future Goals and Fears Questionnaire“ (Nurmi, Poole, Seginer, 1992). „The Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire“ was used in order to find out what cognitive strategies... [to full text]

Undersökningen har bearbetat förväntningar och förbättringar på planlösningar i flerbostadshus. Enkätundersökning bland allmänheten och de boende i Vikaholm, Växjö, samt intervjuer med arkitekter användes för att få synpunkter på förbättringar. Även intervjuer med de boende utfördes för att få mer utvecklande och motiverande svar än enbart från enkätundersökningen. Framtagning och utformning av planlösning har utformats efter de önskemål och synpunkter som framkommit i undersökningen. Planlösningarna är yteffektiva och är utformade med hänsyn till bland annat omätbara värden som finns i en bostad, det vill säga rumsliga kvalitéer som är mindre uppenbara och svåra att kvantifiera. Olika punkter som bekvämlighet, bättre möblerbarhet och mer förvaringsmöjlighet har gjort att bostaden har fått en annan utformning än de ursprungliga planlösningarna. Flexibla och generella rum som följer krav vid utformning och som inte har onödiga ytor har varit målet med arbetet. Arbetets resultat kan användas till andra framtida planlösningar än till det flerbostadshus som legat som grund för detta examensarbete. / The survey has processed expectations and improvements on floor plans in a multi-family house. A survey by the public and residents in Vikaholm, Växjö, and interviews with experts were made to get views of improvements. Also interviews with residents were also made to get more developing and motivational answers than just from the opinion poll. The design and layout of the planning has been designed according to the desires and views expressed in the survey. The plan solutions are highly space-efficient and are designed with regard to, inter alia, intangible values that exist in a dwelling, which is spatial qualities that are less obvious and difficult to quantify. Different items such as comfort, better furnishing and more storage have made the accommodation a different design than the original floor plans. Flexible and general spaces that meet design requirements and have no unnecessary surfaces have been the aim of the work. The results of the work can be used for other future floor plans than for the multi-family house that has been the basis for this degree project.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is encouraged as a first step towards people planning for their future with the condition. Despite the proposed benefits of diagnosis, it is also widely recognised that Alzheimer’s disease can expose people to stigma. Therefore, this thesis explores the relationship between stigma and future outlook, from the perspective of people affected by early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. In order to recognise the physicality of the condition and how psychological and social factors influence experiences, a biopsychosocial perspective is employed throughout. People with Alzheimer’s disease (n=15 people with late-onset, 7 people with early-onset) and their supporters (n=22) completed questionnaires about perceived stigma. This was followed by 14 interviews with a subsample of participants, which explored stigma and future outlook in more depth. Perceived stigma reporting across participants was low in the questionnaires; whereas interviews revealed higher levels of stigma with people discussing mixed, unpredictable reactions from a range of sources. Participants expressed awareness of the unpredictable nature of their futures with the condition. The subsequent lack of control was managed through focusing on ‘one day at a time’ and avoiding looking too far ahead. Across reflections on stigma and future outlook there was a deliberate focus on positive experiences for people affected by early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The similar management of experiences across participants minimised possible age-based differences. These findings are supported by socioemotional selectivity theory, which suggests people are motivated to maintain positive emotional states when facing ‘time-limiting’ conditions irrespective of age. The research suggests people’s experiences of stigma and future outlook interact, with stigma-driven assumptions about the future affecting how people manage their daily lives. The avoidance of looking ahead suggests that policy which encourages future planning should consider its utility and explore ways of helping people to manage both exposure to stigma, and planning for the future, whilst focusing on daily living.