Conceptions of work among adolescents and young adults with mental retardation.

Semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 Israeli adolescents and young adults with mild mental retardation to examine their perceptions of the world of work. A consensual qualitative strategy of analysis (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997) yielded 4 domains (Definitions of Work, Reasons for Working, Self-Awareness, Knowledge About the World of Work) and 12 categories. Although respondents showed strong willingness to participate in the world of work, they had little information regarding this realm. Implications are discussed for career development programs programs targeting young persons with mental retardation and community and family involvement in such programs.

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Work plays a central role in adult life, crucially affecting self-concept and wellness. Participation in the world of work signifies that one is a vital and constructive member of society, and involvement in the mainstream labor force fulfills both individual and societal expectations (Super, 1990). Therefore, when measuring the success of the rehabilitation system for individuals with mental and physical disabilities, who are at risk for exclusion from the mainstream, job placement may be the most important goal of rehabilitation (Pumpian, Fisher, Certo, & Smally, 1997). The major challenges facing the field of rehabilitation regarding persons with mental retardation are the expansion of employment opportunities and the preparation of qualified workers (Walls & Fullmer, 1997).

Nonetheless, job placement alone does not suffice within the dynamic world of work, which requires job transitions as an integral part of career development, especially for persons with disabilities (Pumpian et al., 1997; Shafer, Banks, & Kregel, 1991). Follow-up research on graduates of the special education system in the United States as well as in Israel has indicated that despite the importance of work for this population and despite efforts to provide job placement for persons with disabilities, up to half of these graduates are unemployed ("Disability Employment Awareness Month," 1997; Reiter & Planizky, 1996). A developmental approach may address this need by assisting individuals over the long term, from early education through supported employment programs that have a role in job placement, initial training, and an extended period of stabilization (Bloom, 1993; Mank, Cioffi, & Yovanoff, 1998; Sandow, Olson, & Yan, 1993). Such a lifelong approach should rely on knowledge of career development theory and research and should uphold a value approach that facilitates work as an integral part of life quality for persons with mental retardation. The present exploratory study attempted to expand general knowledge regarding perceptions of work and the career needs of adolescents with mild mental retardation in Israel, thus supporting the value approach, which emphasizes individual life quality.

A Value Approach

Many changes have emerged in recent years regarding definitions of mental retardation and treatment available to individuals with mental retardation. A value approach that is based on a lifelong developmental model and on the concept of normalization has replaced the traditional approach, which advocated protective treatment and institutional care (Zimerman & Warschausky, 1998). In Israel, as in other Western countries, the special education system is approaching integration (Rand & Reichenberg, 1994). The 1988 Israel Law of Special Education meaningfully expanded the responsibility of public authorities toward persons with disabilities, emphasizing the obligation to integrate such individuals into normal educational and life settings. This newer approach emphasizes the rights of individuals with mental retardation to obtain a high quality life, not merely a "normal" life (Brown et al., 1996; Giangreco & Cloninger, 1993). Life quality refers to a fit between a person's beliefs, needs, and preferences on the one hand and that person's environment on the other (Schalock, Strak, & Snell, 1994). For individuals with disabilities, there is a correlation between quality of life and the degree to which needs are met in relation to the individual's environment (Neumayer & Bleasdale, 1997).

In the value approach, the person with mental retardation is viewed as a developmental organism who has a right to occupational and social participation. In line with this approach, Western society is becoming more aware of its responsibility to enable such persons to express and satisfy day-to-day personal preferences and to fulfill their potential at every stage of development (for a review, see Lancioni, O'Reilly, Campodonico, & Mantini, 1998). Empirical studies have indicated that allowing individuals with disabilities to satisfy their own preferences may promote their achievement and their quality of life (Bambara, Koger, Katzer, & Davenport, 1995; Favell, Realon, & Sutton, 1996; Felce & Perry, 1995; Panagos & DuBois, 1999). In response to the widely accepted normalization principle, current educational systems for adolescents tend to encourage independent behavior in their students with mental retardation; however, these systems rarely teach skills that are connected with life quality such as making choices, planning for the future, autonomy, professional self-concept, motivation to work, empowerment, and personal responsibility for one's life (Dillon, 1993; Zimerman & Warschausky, 1998). Most existing programs teach simple manual tasks, an approach that does not incorporate the students' needs or preferences. Despite widespread recognition of the need for career development services and programs, these areas do not receive priority in most educational facilities, and this is especially true for special education (Munson, 1994).

In sum, there is a gap between the well-accepted rights for occupational normalization and the low rates of employment among persons with mental retardation ("Disability Employment Awareness Month," 1997). Among the possible explanations for this are the lack of available career development interventions that include life quality skills and the scarce theoretical knowledge about career development in this population. According to the value approach, career development programs for persons with mental retardation can be of optimal benefit if such programs are based on research that directly involves persons with mental retardation and explores their preferences, needs, and knowledge regarding the world of work. However, we were unable to identify research that focused on the perceptions of persons with mental retardation regarding the world of work. Atkinson (1989) demonstrated that persons with intellectual disability could contribute to research by responding capably to interview questions and commenting on their lifestyles. Such responses regarding conceptions of work may provide crucial knowledge for the design of appropriate career programs for this population.

Career Development and Mental Retardation

Career development has been described as a complex, lifelong process of developing and implementing occupational self-concepts (Super, 1992). The extensive body of research on general career development processes has been criticized for its disregard of large segments of the population and for its failure to account for structural and cultural factors (Fitzgerald & Betz, 1994). The relations between career development and disabilities, especially mental disabilities, constitute an area that is sorely neglected by career researchers and theorists (Conyers, Koch, & Szymanski, 1998; Henderson & Szymanski, 1992). The limited information on career development processes in the lives of persons with disabilities has been focused on populations with learning disorders or with physical disabilities (for a review, see Enright, Conyers, & Szymanski, 1996). The few existing studies suggest a complex set of relations between disability and career development (Szymanski & Hanley-Maxwell, 1996). For some individuals, the presence of disability may have little influence on their career development and life plans; for others, the same type of disability may profoundly affect their experiences, self-esteem, and career aspirations (Szymanski & Hanley-Maxwell, 1996). A person's careerrelated reactions to disability depend on the interaction between various individual, social, and environmental factors, such as interests, beliefs, gender, family, self-efficacy, educational background, socioeconomic status, and culture (Szymanski, Henderson, Enright, & Ettinger, 1996).