External sources promoting resilience in adults with intellectual disabilities: A systematic literature review

Background:
Persons with an intellectual disability are at increased risk of experiencing adversities. The current study aims at providing an overview of the research on how resilience in adults with intellectual disabilities, in the face of adversity, is supported by sources in their social network.

Method:
A literature review was conducted in the databases Psycinfo and Web of Science. To evaluate the quality of the included studies, the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used.

Results:
The themes: “positive emotions,” “network acceptance,” “sense of coherence” and “network support,” were identified as sources of resilience in the social network of the adults with intellectual disabilities.

Conclusion:
The current review showed that research addressing sources of resilience among persons with intellectual disabilities is scarce. In this first overview, four sources of resilience in the social network of people with intellectual disabilities were identified that interact and possibly strengthen each other.