Disability and Community Life: Does Regional Living Enhance Social Participation?

Abstract

It is well documented that disability can be associated with exclusion from full participation in education and employment. This may in turn affect the overall well-being and life satisfaction of people with disability. Less clear are the ways in which location may affect social participation and access to social support among people with disability. Although it has been argued that regional or rural living facilitates social connectedness and access to social support, the validity of this theory in the context of disability has not been assessed. This study investigates different types of community involvement, levels of perceived social support, and self-reported life satisfaction among regional people with disability relative to their counterparts living in major cities. Regional people with disability report higher involvement in volunteer work, more frequent attendance at community events, and stronger feelings of being part of their community, which partially supports the hypothesis that location and social participation are related. The findings show that despite greater relative socioeconomic disadvantage regional living can be associated with enhanced social connectedness.