Participation and Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities in Local Communities
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
- Leisure time activities among children and youth;
- What services and activities exists (in the municipality);
- Facilitation (who and how) for participation in school, in leisure and at home;
- Particularly popular/successful initiatives;
- What should the municipality do to ensure equal participation for the target group;
- Utilization of parents’ experiences to improve service quality;
- Identification of improvements needed;
- Assessment of efforts made by the municipality;
- Experiences elsewhere that should be considered (in the respective municipalities);
- Barriers for children and youth with disabilities to participate equally as others;
- How are municipalities and other actors collaborating to promote participation;
- Do children and youth with disabilities have a say in service provision;
- What is participation and what is inclusion (for the target group);
- Any specific advice to the municipality that can improve service quality.
3. Results
3.1. Focus Group Discussions
3.2. Survey
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Municipality | Service Providers (Male/Female) | Parents (Male/Female) | Children | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boys | Girls | Age Range | |||
A | 8 (3/5) | 6 (3/3) | 1 | 4 | 19–23 (34) 1 |
V | 6 (2/4) | 5 (1/4) | 3 | 2 | 10–20 |
H | 11 (2/9) | 3 (0/3) | 1 | 3 | 18–25 |
S | 8 (1/7) | 3 (0/3) | 1 | 4 | 13–28 (30) 1 |
Level of Own Participation |
Children and youth participate in many different activities during a month. These activities can take place at home, at school, or during leisure periods—both organized and unorganized activities (1–5: never, seldom, sometimes, often, very often). How often are you: -carrying out leisure activities at school -together with friends -carrying out leisure activities (outside school with friends) -performing organized sports -visiting a cafè together with others -in contact with others on social media -performing leisure activities with the family (other family members) -attending cultural events with someone other than family members -visiting friends -talking to others that are not in your family -friends visiting you |
Environmental barriers |
Do you experience barriers for participating in activities at home, at school/work or leisure? (1–4: to a large degree, to some degree, to a small degree, not at all): -difficult to get transport to go to the activities -too expensive to participate -lack support to participate -negative attitudes in the society -activities are not adapted to my needs -lack of information from the municipality -activities for children and youth are not prioritised -accessibility is problematic -lack overview of activities -difficult to get the right assistive products |
Satisfaction with own participation |
How satisfied are you with your own participation when you are (1–5: very satisfied, satisfied, neither nor, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied): -together with friends at your place (in your own home) -doing leisure activities other than sports activities with friends -visiting friends (in their home) -in contact with others on social media -at school/work -doing leisure activities with your family -at cultural events with friends or other than your family -doing organized sports activities |
Own participation compared to others |
Compared with people your own age, how often are you (1–5: never, seldom, sometimes, often, very often): -together with friends (outside your own home and their home) -doing leisure activities (other than sports) -doing organized sport -at meetings/arrangements in a voluntary organization (other than sports) -visiting a café with others than your family -in contact with others on social media -at leisure activities with your family -at cultural events with friends or other than your family -visiting friends (in their home) -talk to other than family members -doing leisure activities at school -together with friends at your place (in your own home) |
Washington Group/Unicef Child Module Items Used in the Survey |
---|
Do you have any difficulties with activities in daily life related to your health? (1–4: No difficulties, some difficulties, a lot of difficulties, unable to do (the activity): -seeing, even if you are wearing glasses -hearing, even if you are using hearing aid -walking or climbing stairs -remembering or concentrating -with self-care, such as washing all over or dressing -using your own language, have difficulty communicating, for example understanding or being understood -learning things (compared to children your own age) -remembering (compared to children your own age) -concentrating on something you like to do -accepting changes or routines -controlling yourself (compared to children your own age) -making friends |
Scale Properties | Mean | Standard Deviation | KMO Bartlett’s | p | % Variance | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st Factor | ||||||
Scale (Range) 1 | Factor | |||||
Level of own participation (20-65) | 41.35 | 8.11 | 0.81 | <0.001 | 20.4 | |
Environmental barriers for participation (12–48) | 25.10 | 7.87 | 0.91 | <0.001 | 30.1 | |
Own participation compared with peers (12–48) | 31.07 | 7.32 | 0.85 | <0.001 | 31.9 | |
Satisfaction with own participation (11–55) | 41.09 | 5.80 | 0.88 | <0.001 | 31.6 | |
Mean scale value | F | p | ||||
Persons with disabilities | Persons without disabilities | 9.83 | <0.01 | |||
Level of own participation (20-65) | 40.25 | 42.68 | 4.22 | <0.05 | ||
Environmental barriers for participation (12–48) | 26.68 | 23.18 | 9.55 | 0.002 | ||
Own participation compared with peers (12–48) | 29.53 | 32.95 | 10.61 | 0.001 | ||
Satisfaction with own participation (11–55) | 39.83 | 42.62 | 11.27 | <0.001 |
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Eide, A.H.; Ofstad, D.; Støylen, M.; Hansen, E.; Høiseth, M. Participation and Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities in Local Communities. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 11893. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911893
Eide AH, Ofstad D, Støylen M, Hansen E, Høiseth M. Participation and Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities in Local Communities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(19):11893. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911893
Chicago/Turabian StyleEide, Arne H., Dag Ofstad, Marit Støylen, Emil Hansen, and Marikken Høiseth. 2022. "Participation and Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities in Local Communities" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 19: 11893. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911893