Decision Making and Culturally Diverse Individuals with IDD and Their Families: A Call for Research

Decision making is an essential skill that allows a person to exercise autonomy and express their needs and wants. For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds, decision making may not match the literature of decision making among individuals without disabilities or individuals from the majority, white culture. In this chapter, we consider decision making and its process, examine the cultural factors that might affect the opportunities and experience of decision making, and present findings from a scoping review that addressed decision making among culturally diverse individuals with IDD and their families. Our review of these articles suggests that our understanding of the role of culture in decision making remains limited. We propose the Socio-Ecological Model of Decision Making in Culturally Diverse Individuals with IDD as a conceptual model to understand the complex interactions between culture, individuals with IDD, families, and decision making. We conclude with recommendations for future research and practice to address the gaps in our understanding of decision making in culturally diverse individuals with IDD and their families.