Aleksandra Mach

The article presents the findings of a study aimed at, among others, determining the level of health related behaviors of people with mild intellectual disability in the following areas: proper eating habits, preventive health behaviors, positive attitude, health habits. The study was focused on describing the interdependence between health related behaviors and cognitive-affective factors such as: the feeling of coherence, personal competence, self-perception and perception others. Canonical analysis was applied, which allowed to determine the level of interdependence of a pair of canonical variables, health related behaviors and cognitive-affective factors. On the basis of the analysis two configurations of interdependence between the analyzed sets of canonical variables were identified, and therefore two interpretative variants of the obtained relations can be taken into consideration. The study comprised 81 students (33 women and 48 men) with mild intellectual disabilities, attending special vocational schools in three cities in the  Podkarpackie Voivodeship: Jarso³aw, Le¿ajsk, Ropczyce. Four research tools were used: Index of Health Behaviors (Inwentarz Zachowañ Zdrowotnych (IZZ)) by Z. Juczyñski, Questionnare for determining the feeling of coherence (Kwestionariusz do pomiaru poczucia koherencji) SOC-13M adapted by M. Zwoliñski, I. Jelonkiewicz and K. Kosiñska-Dec, Personal Competence Scale (Skala Kompetencji Osobistej (KompOs)) by Z. Juczyñski and Scale of Self-perception and Perception of Others (Skala Spostrzegania Siebie i Innych Ludzi) by J. Kochañski and J. Kirenko (SSSiIL).

The objective of this research was to find out the scale of teenage parenthood among students with intellectual disability who attend special education schools. It has been assumed that the upper age limit of becoming a mother or a father is 19 years. Another assumption made in the study has been that young people who become parents at the age of 19 are only starting their adult lives, thus they have no professional stability or their own flat and are not financially and economically independent. Students with disability, in particular of intellectual character, mostly still attend special education schools when they are 19. Therefore, when dealing with teenage parenting, the support provided by  teachers may be of utmost importance for the future of young parents, their baby and close relatives. The research involved thirty four facilities from twelve provinces in Poland. Most of them were special education and care centers, special education school complexes but also complexes of special care, education and revalidation centers. In the case of secondary schools, special basic vocational schools/classes and vocational preparatory schools were the most represented ones. To determine the scale of teenage parenting six time ranges were adopted that correlated with specific school years [except the last period which did not close at a fixed time], i.e. 2015/2016, 2014/2015, 2013/2014, 2012/2013, 2011/2012, 2010 and earlier.