Predicting adult-age mental health with childhood reading and math disability: do resilience and coping styles matter?

We studied the associations between childhood-identified learning disabilities and adult-age mental health and whether adult-age reading and math skills, coping styles, or resilience influenced the associations. The participants were 159 Finnish adults (60.4% males). Of them, 48 (30%) had a reading disability (RD), 22 (14%) had a math disability (MD), 21 (13%) had RD + MD identified in childhood, and 68 (43%) were population-based controls, matched based on gender, age, and place of residence. At ages 20-40 (Mage = 29), they reported their mental health, coping styles, and resilience, and their reading and math skills were assessed. The hierarchical regression analyses, predicting mental health with RD, MD, and their interaction while controlling for gender and age, indicated that childhood MD predicted the occurrence of more mental health problems in adulthood, but this was not observed in the case of RD. The RDxMD positive interaction effect reflected better mental health in both the RD and the RD + MD groups than in the MD group. Controlling for adult-age reading and math skills had no effect on the association between MD and mental health outcomes while controlling for resilience and coping styles diminished the impact of MD. Strong resilience without the use of an emotion-oriented coping may thus alleviate the association between MD and mental health. As childhood MD can have long-term associations with mental health problems, these issues need to be addressed in school, at work, and in healthcare. Based on our findings, strengthening effective coping and resilience may be one avenue of support.

Transition from sheltered workplace: Vocational skills are not the main concern.

The aim of this study was to investigate the transition of employees with intellectual disabilities to inclusive work environments from sheltered workplaces. The study was conducted in a sheltered workplace in Turkey for people with intellectual disabilities. Data was collected from 71 participants in interviews. Interviews were conducted with employees (n = 28), families of employees (n = 24), company human resource managers (n = 8), sheltered workshop foremen (n = 7), and special education teachers (n = 4). The study group asked about the future of the sheltered workplace and participants' views on transition to inclusive work environments. The answers of the participants were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings showed that many participants had positive views about transition along with concerns about accidents and security problems that may occur in inclusive environments. It was observed that negative attitudes and views were related with lack of knowledge about inclusive work environment conditions.