Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify changes in relationships with friends and aspirations for relationships with friends before and after graduation from a special needs high school, and to examine the background of changes in aspirations for relationships, based on semi-structured interviews with three students with intellectual disabilities and their parents.
The results showed that two common features were observed in the subjects: they viewed their relationships with friends also enrolled in special needs programs as more favorable than relationships forged outside of school, and they continued to recognize their classmates as friends after graduation. Their aspirations regarding their relationships with friends changed between before and after they had experiences interacting with friends in places other than school. This change was the development of an aspiration to interact with classmates outside of school and after graduation.
These results suggest that the experience of interacting with friends in informal settings may be a factor in the development of the aspiration to forge and maintain relationships with friends in multiple settings, both before and after graduation. We also noted that the stability of relationships with friends who also have intellectual disabilities is accompanied by proximity. In this regard, vulnerability to environmental changes in relationships with friends among youth with intellectual disabilities may occur. The development of relationships with friends in multiple settings may contribute to the stability of relationships, that is, their maintenance before and after graduating from school.
https://ror.org/01qheje62 
