Abstract
Adolescence is known as one of the most challenging periods in human life, which brings many emotional, social and even educational crises. This course can be faced with more challenges and sufferings for teenagers who are intellectual disability, so the purpose of this research was to explain the lived experience of the challenges of intellectual disability teenagers. The research population included all boys with intellectual disability in the pre-professional and vocational schools of Kashan who were studying in the academic year 1402-1401, among them 9 people were targeted for Research were selected. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed with the 7-step Colaizzi method. The results indicated the extraction of 3 main themes and 9 secondary themes. The main themes are: 1- social challenge (1- job and career future and worry about it, 2- free time, 3- shame and embarrassment of recognition, 4- concern about marriage), 2- individual challenge (1- acceptance) The negatives were 2- positive acceptance, 3- diseases and the need for medicine, 4- financial independence), 3- family challenges (1- family attitude) which were examined in detail in the research. According to the results, it was determined that it is necessary to deal with the problems and challenges of intellectual disability teenagers, and therefore, providing support and educational services for teenagers and their families can reduce their problems.
Keywords: Lived Experience, Phenomenological, Adolescent, Intellectual.
Extended Abstract

Introduction

Intellectual disability (ID) is one of the neurodevelopmental disorders that during the developmental period brings various harms to the affected person, family and society. According to the latest definitions of the American Association of Mental and Developmental Disabilities, this disorder is diagnosed with criteria such as damage in the field of mental functions such as reasoning, problem solving, planning, abstract thinking, judgment, learning, practical experience and understanding, as well as adaptive functioning. (Halvarsen et al., 2023). Adolescence is one of the most important stages in the development of human personality. Adolescents face many challenges in this period. These problems are also seen for teenagers with intellectual disabilities, such that weakness in self-confidence, anger control, inability to regulate personal and interpersonal demands, concern about social acceptance are other problems of theirs (Drozd et al., 2020).
Research Question
The current research seeks to answer the question, what issues, problems and challenges do teenagers with intellectual disabilities face?

Literature Review

Kedrova and Matantseva (2016) concluded that by teaching self-regulation, a large amount of challenges of adolescents with intellectual disability can be reduced. Pratt and Greydanus (2007) said that if a suitable support system is formed for adolescents with intellectual disability from the family and society, there will be fewer challenges for the adolescent and the family during this period. The only qualitative research conducted in the field of adolescents with intellectual disabilities is Shams-e-Islami, Mousavi and Rezaei (2023), who in their research entitled "Explaining the concept of loneliness in mentally retarded adolescents based on the existential phenomenology approach" showed four main themes in the interviews. "Loneliness as an experience of separation", "consequences of loneliness", "the meaning of loneliness" and "loneliness as a basic life experience" were extracted, and each of these main themes emerged through the analysis of several sub-themes.

Methodology

The current research was of qualitative type and phenomenological method was used for its implementation. This research, using the research tradition of lived experience, tried to identify the reality, as it appears to the research subjects. In the implementation of this phenomenological research, instead of using data to test hypotheses arising from research literature, which is done in other quantitative researches, verbal reports of people about their experiences were used as data. The statistical population included all boys with mental disabilities who were studying in pre-professional and professional schools in the academic year of 2022-2023 in Kashan city. Data collection was done through in-depth semi-structured interviews, individually and face-to-face in a separate room from the classroom. The questions asked focused on the problems and issues that these teenagers experience in school and outside of school. With the informed consent of the participants and educational staff, the interviews were recorded anonymously. Depending on the willingness of the participants and the conditions of the interview, the duration took between 20 and 45 minutes. For reliability, the findings, including the main themes and sub-themes of the research, were examined, consulted and modified through the opinions of faculty members of the Department of Psychology of Exceptional Children of Isfahan University. The participants in this research were 9 people who were in the age range of 16 to 22 years, and their average age was about 17 years, and the educational level of these people was from 8th to 12th.

Results

After analyzing the data, 3 main themes and 9 sub-themes were extracted, which can represent the experiences of boys with intellectual disabilities. In Table 1, the main theme and sub-themes extracted from the research are summarized.
Table 1
Table 1: Themes extracted from the interviews




Main themes


Sub-themes






Social challenge


Career and career future and worry about it




Free time




Shame and embarrassment of recognition




Marriage concern




Individual challenge


Negative acceptance




Positive acceptance




Diseases and the need for medicine




Financial independence




Family challenge


Family attitude





Discussion

By providing the successful employment of teenagers with intellectual disabilities, the goals of education and training of this group are met to a great extent, because many educational processes are designed to achieve a career success for the future. Participating in leisure activities not only strengthens self-confidence, mental vitality and vitality, but also strengthens the sensory and motor skills of people with intellectual disability and reduces behavioral problems, progress in education, personal sufficiency and expansion of interactions. Sexual need is considered as an undeniable need in people with intellectual disabilities, but in the context of the ability of these people to marry and accept the role of wife and parenthood, the intelligence conditions, abilities and skills of these people, as well as support and educational services in that community should be noticed. The higher the quality of educational programs in exceptional educational schools in order to adapt to society, acquire social skills and prepare for jobs, the acceptance rate of these schools can be increased.

Conclusion

Based on the results obtained in the present research, it can be stated that the challenges faced by boys with intellectual disability can be examined and explained from different personal, family, social and psychological angles, and solutions should be found for each of them.
Acknowledgments
All the teenagers who participated in this research are thanked and appreciated.