Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa.
J Couns Psychol. 2014 Apr;61(2):208-20. doi: 10.1037/a0035462. Epub 2014 Mar 24.
Women and girls with disabilities face obstacles to community participation and social acceptance. Consequently, as adolescent women with disabilities mature into adulthood, they may have difficulty feeling that they belong both in the general community and in the community of all women. The positive impact of peer support groups for young women with disabilities on their sense of belonging has been underinvestigated. We conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with 9 members of a well-established empowerment support group for young women with disabilities to explore how the group might foster a sense of belonging to the general community as well as a sense of shared womanhood. Results revealed that self-confidence and disability pride stemming from participation in the group were essential in helping the women counteract exclusionary messages from the outside world. The group provided an opportunity to develop a positive disability identity and to gain new information regarding the ability and right to identify as women. Reciprocal bonds with other group members helped cultivate feelings of belonging. In turn, the women communicated their empowered identities and the disability rights information they learned in the group to their friends, family, and community members. The group offered the women various platforms to assert their right to belong and, therefore, to participate in the world as women and as independent members of their broader communities. These results show how peer support groups for young women with disabilities can positively influence their sense of belonging both within the group and in the world outside the group.
残疾妇女和女孩在参与社区和获得社会认可方面面临障碍。因此，随着残疾青少年女性成长为成年女性，她们可能会感到难以同时融入普通社区和所有女性社区。同伴支持小组对残疾年轻女性归属感的积极影响尚未得到充分研究。我们对一个成熟的残疾年轻女性赋权支持小组的 9 名成员进行了深入的半结构化访谈，以探讨该小组如何培养她们对普通社区以及女性群体的归属感。研究结果表明，参与小组所带来的自信和残疾自豪感对于帮助女性对抗来自外界的排斥信息至关重要。该小组为培养积极的残疾认同感以及获得关于作为女性的能力和权利的新信息提供了机会。与其他小组成员的互惠关系有助于培养归属感。反过来，女性将她们在小组中获得的赋权身份和残疾权利信息传达给朋友、家人和社区成员。该小组为女性提供了各种平台，以维护她们的归属感权利，从而使她们能够作为女性以及其更广泛社区的独立成员参与世界。这些结果表明，残疾年轻女性的同伴支持小组如何积极影响她们在小组内和小组外的归属感。
