Predicting adaptive functioning of mentally retarded persons in community settings.

The impact of a variety of individual, residential, and community variables on adaptive functioning of retarded persons was examined using a multiple-regression analysis. Individual characteristics (especially IQ) accounted for 21 percent of the variance, while environmental variables, primarily those related to normalization, accounted for 35 percent. The data suggest that environmental normalization may be an effective technology for the promotion of independent functioning of retarded people as well as an ideology.