- Life trajectory outcomes were generally worse for people with disabilities than for people without 
- Poor social skills were common among many of the disabilities studied including those with mental illness, physical impairments, and developmental disorders
- Many of the poor social outcomes were comorbid across conditions: that is, regardless of the disability, a child had poor social outcomes ranging from fewer friendships to higher degree of mental health problems


University of Virginia, Charlottesville

- Developmental trajectories are characterized by viewing individuals within their social, personal, generational, and cultural
- A key facet of this is understanding that a person’s development is on-going and ever changing - nobody stays exactly as they are as they age


Developmental Tracks and Youth with Disabilities

Gorter, J. W., Stewart, D., Smith, M. W., King, G., Wright, M., Nguyen, T., Freeman, M., & Swinton, M. (2014). Pathways toward positive psychosocial outcomes and Mental Health for Youth With Disabilities: A knowledge synthesis of developmental trajectories. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 33(1), 45–61. https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2014-005 

Positive Psychosocial Outcomes and Mental Health for Youth with Disabilities Reference

Psychosocial Outcomes of Youth with Disabilities

- In regard to societal outcomes (such as employment and education), many people with disabilities were employed at the same rate as people without disabilities - the discrepancy lies with the types of jobs being worked
- An important factor in determining whether or not a person was employed was severity of disability and level of social skills (lower severity and higher social skills often leads to higher rates of employment)


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