Book Review Title: Quality of Life and Intellectual Disability; Knowledge Application to Other Social and Educational Challenges

In response to a need to systematically measure the effects of public policy and programs on individuals and communities, social scientists in the 1970s developed quality of life (QOL) studies. In many cases, they were theoretically based, for example, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1954). They generally assumed that quality of life was a multi-dimensional concept and used quasi-experimental designs and quantitative measures that previously had been found to be valid and highly reliable indicators across various populations, for example, life satisfaction. In the 1980s, clinicians/researchers working in the fields of intellectual and developmental disabilities also began to study the quality of life of their patients. They were concerned with how such contextual conditions/variables as poverty, parents ' educational level, and ethnicity related to successful interventions and how successful and not so successful interventions impacted individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities quality of life or personal well being. These studies tended to be small sample, one-time interviews using qualitative and sometimes quantitative measures. They have become more rigorous over time using mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) designs and validated indicators that allow for meaningful comparison of findings and study replication