Increasing Knowledge on Family Issues: A Research Agenda for 2000

Since midcentury, changes have taken place in American society that have had a profound impact on both the family and the lives of mentally retarded persons. To yield highly relevant findings, future research on families with mentally retarded members will have to take these changes into account. This chapter suggests yet another perspective for future research in this area. In the discussion that follows, the terms mentally retarded (MR) and severely developmentally disabled (DD) are used interchangeably.