Investigation of the relationship between social supports perceptions, future expectations and hopelessness levels of visually impaired adults

Disability is a fact that exists in every society in every period. Disability affects the disabled person and indirectly the society and is also the person is affected by the society. Within this cycle of influence, the social support perceived by individuals in addition to their disability becomes very important. The perception of social support, which includes the relationship of every individual living in the society with his/her social environment, is directly related to the positive and negative expectations or attitudes of the individual towards life, and has biopsychosocial effects on the individual. Accordingly, it is important to investigate the relationship between perceived social support and individuals' future expectations and hopelessness levels. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between social support perceptions, future expectations and hopelessness levels of visually impaired adults. The participants in the research of the research are visually impaired adult individuals who are members of associations for the visually impaired people in Ankara and Istanbul provinces. A total of 165 visually impaired adults were included in the study by purposive sampling method. In the research, three scales including Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale, Positive Future Expectation Scale and Beck Hopelessness Scale were used. For the analysis of the research data, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation analysis were used. According to the results of the study, a positive relationship was found between perceived social support and its subscales - perceived family support, friend support, support from a special person - and positive future expectancy.Also a negative relationship was found between the level of hopelessness. There is a negative relationship between positive future expectancy and hopelessness level. Considering that social work is a profession intertwined with the area related to disabled people due to its fields of study, it could be thought that a social work perspective on the visual disability through the issues investigated will contribute to the literature and will enable new research with the problem posed. Keywords: Future expectation, hopelessness, perception of social support, visually impaired