This work was supported by a grant from Shalem Fund for Development of Services for People with Intellectual Disabilities in the Local Councils in Israel
The present study is a quantitative study conducted with the aim to examine the relationship between social networks participation and the social capability among 101 people with Intellectual developmental disabilities in the age of over 21 mediated by the feeling of loneliness and the recession of the relationship by three motives for social network participation
In addition, the variables age, gender, and type of social networking platform were examined as predictors of participation in social networks
The findings of the study indicate a significant positive relationship between social network participation and social capability. The feeling of loneliness was not found to mediate the relationship between social networks participation and social capability. In addition, motives for social networking participation were found to moderate and strengthen the relationship between the two variables. There is also a significant negative relationship between age and social network participation, and a significant positive relationship is found between the social networking platform and social networking participation, with WhatsApp being the social network that contributes most to predicting participation
The findings of this study reinforce the importance of linguistic accessibility of existing social networks due to the potential contribution of social networking participation among individuals with Intellectual developmental disabilities to promote their social ability
Key Words: Social networking site (SNS); intellectual disability; social competence, loneliness; motives; social media