This study intends to examine generally the lives of adults who have Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF), who, even though they face various challenges of life, still remain in the blind spot of studies, and to trace what the primary factors are...
This study intends to examine generally the lives of adults who have Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF), who, even though they face various challenges of life, still remain in the blind spot of studies, and to trace what the primary factors are connected to the process leading to their self-reliance, and that self-reliance.
Self-reliance exists as the very important core value and conceptual goal of every field of social welfare of late. However, for BIF adults with cognitive disorder have many limitations that become a driving force for living their own lives independently and autonomously, and that lifestyle being guaranteed and coming to realization.
Adults with BIF do not fall under the categories for handicapped persons, but they experience a larger difference with non-handicapped persons, co-exist in the culture of both handicapped and non-handicapped persons, and are excluded from both cultures, too. Persons placed in these ambiguous positions exhibit vulnerability in the increasingly complicated social demands, and in particular, their problems from their young adulthood come to the surface when they leave the system and cross over to self-reliance.
With BIF adults as subjects, this study applied qualitative research methodology, used life-history narrative with the seven BIF adult participants in this research, collected and analyzed data, and even interviewed three specialists to supplement the content of the research participants.
The result of this research is that we could see wider phenomena to the extent of the diversity of characteristics of the research subjects, and in the process of detecting attributes and dimensions of categories, 130 categories of meaning and 28 subcategories, and 12 categories were deduced. We were able to discover that the central context that penetrates the context of their lives is the processional flow of the changing ‘self’ together with the ‘external gaze’ of others. This is showing the process of adults with BIF gradually opening themselves as stabilized ‘selves’ from persons who had remained as strangers standing alone, while the external gaze of others’ changed from sealed lack of understanding to empathy. We could observe that these processes that achieve the self-reliance of BIF adults are not the processes of individual efforts alone, but move through mutual interacting processes of the organically connected external gazes of others that surround BIF adults and the self that is faced in those gazes, and are made into one context of the BIF adults’ process of self-reliance. These processes with regard to the self-reliance of BIF adults have been subdivided into 5 stages.The first stage of the process of self-reliance of BIF adults is “sealed lack of understanding and the self standing alone.” In this stage, they live by themselves lives that demand things not suitable to them, while the gazes of others are completely unaware of their special peculiarities, and within those gazes they cannot receive either understanding or concern. The second stage is the “distorted gazes and wandering self” stage. This stage can be called the “wandering stage” that comes from their struggle to break out from the misunderstanding and the suffocating and wrong views of them that arise from a complete lack of understanding. The third stage is the “met gazes and acknowledging self” stage, the stage at which the entrance door into society becomes open for the first time when the surrounding gazes of others come to recognize the differences of adults with BIF and BIF adults come to acknowledge themselves. The fourth stage is the stage of “accepted gazes and opened selves.” The surrounding gazes of others accept the limitations of, have time and wait for adults with BIF, and BIF adults make their own concentrated efforts in adapting to society but within that, struggle with difficulties, too. The last stage, stage five, is the process of “empathetic gazes and stabilized self.” At this stage, the surrounding gazes of others accepts BIF adults as members of society, and BIF adults discover themselves growing in society, and finding stability socially, emotionally and psychologically.
Through processes like these, adults with BIF come to find the path of self-reliance by which they can finally take their place as independent human beings. However, these processes do not progress sequentially in the process of their self-reliance. Following personal attributes and circumstances, retrogressions also arise, and BIF adults also can remain in the middle, not reaching all of the processes of their self-reliance. As well, the self-reliance of those still living their young adult years is not the complete self-reliance of those who resolve all things by themselves but that of remaining in economic self-reliance achieved by social integration as entrance into society is accomplished.
Various factors were also observed that had an influence on the processional stages of self-reliance of adults with BIF. We can see that the factors influencing their self-reliance from various angles are an absence of education and low self-esteem, self-control, positive relationships, existence or non-existence of a support group, stress relief methods, absence of policy, etc., and as a final factor, waiting. When these factors become strengthened, it emerged they can enable the social integration of adults with BIF, and lead to self-reliance.
In conclusion, it is clear that adults with BIF have peculiar limitations but they show remarkable growth within the process of self-reliance. It is just that they are a little slower than others. Therefore, in order for adults with BIF to co-exist with society, a gaze of consideration that has latitude is demanded, and when they meet this gaze, their ‘selves’ stably enter self-reliance confidently as members of society and emerge as hoping and dreaming of the future.This significance of this research is that it attempts anew to use qualitative research methodology to deduce results following the stages of the self-reliance process, departing from existing characteristic studies about children with BIF or studies focused on effectiveness with regard to treatment, and directly interviewing adults as subjects. As well, to the extent that it is the first implementation in a professional situation of research closely examining the self-reliance process, there are research implications in having prepared basic materials of policy and practical alternatives with regard to adults with BIF.