Peer relationships of mildly retarded young adults living in the community

ABSTRACT. Socializing with peers and opposite‐sex relationships were examined in two subsets of a mildly mentally retarded (MMR) young adult population living in the community: those who were no longer receiving MR services and those who were attending day centres for MR adults. The MMR young people not receiving services had fewer best friends and socialized significantly less often than a nonretarded comparison population. The MMR males not receiving services also had fewer opposite‐sex relationships than comparisons but this difference was not significant for the females. At age 22, these MMR young people continued to see friends from school significantly less often than comparisons, indicating a possible detrimental effect of special schooling on later socializing with peers. The MMR young people at the day centres socialized more often but this was done almost wholly with others who were MR. Within the MMR study population, the young women not receiving services socialized with peers the least, less than the young women at the day centres and less than the young men not receiving services, but they were married most often.