“Not Sure How to Approach Them the Right Way”: Nondisabled Students’ Perspectives on Friendship With Peers With I/DD

Abstract

Friendships are personally valuable and developmentally important relationships for all people, yet friendships between students with and without intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD) remain infrequent, even in inclusive settings. Extant research indicates that opportunity barriers may play a more prominent role in friendship development than the social skills of students with I/DD. Furthermore, friendships are reciprocal and mutual relationships involving two or more people. Thus, I situated this study within the social context for friendship rather than focusing only on the skills—and presumed deficits—of students with I/DD. As peers without disabilities are an integral part of that social context, I examined nondisabled students’ perspectives on friendship via four focus group interviews with 44 first to eleventh graders in several schools in the northeastern United States. Thematic findings indicated that students with I/DD were not viewed as potential friends and that students with and without I/DD had few opportunities to interact authentically.