Dr Geraldine Boland’s to present at the upcoming American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) 2022 Annual Conference.
In June 2022, Dr Geraldine Boland, Adjunct Assistant Professor of the UCD Centre for Disability Studies will deliver an oral presentation at the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) conference on Connecting locally: Do non-disabled adult siblings have a role in supporting social inclusion in neighbourhoods of adults with intellectual disability?
This study was awarded the prestigious AAIDD International Special Interest Research Network 2022 Award for academic excellence. Geraldine has been offered a student/early career professional scholarship to attend the AAIDD 2022 hybrid in-person/virtual conference.
Study findings indicate that role of adult siblings in supporting engagement and as local connectors has potential as a resource that will contribute to the social inclusion in neighbourhoods of their brothers/sisters with intellectual disability. Local engagement for some sibling pairs based on shared activities that are chosen and enjoyed by both has the potential to lead to developing acquaintances outside family and service provider circles. However, sibling relationships can be complex, and a range of factors exist that influence the nature of their involvement. This study highlights implications for practice and valuable signposts for further research.
This research is one of three studies from Dr Boland’s doctoral thesis completed at the UCD Centre for Disability Studies in 2020 on social inclusion in neighbourhoods of adults with intellectual disabilities, supervised by Professor Suzanne Guerin. Geraldine and Suzanne are most grateful to the 16 participants (8 sibling pairs) who shared their life experiences. Thanks also to the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers and Inclusion Ireland for advertising this study. Geraldine and Suzanne are grateful to the 17 service providers who advertised the study and to Orla Gallagher, PhD student for support with data analysis.
A video abstract for the open access British Journal of learning Disabilities paper is available via the following link: (opens in a new window)https://youtu.be/P1Cg9odbxOk