Adaptive situations and social marginalization in early adult life: students with special educational needs

In this article is developed a typology of social adaptation that captures differences in special needs students' coping in early adult life. The typology reflects differences in framing opportunities and restrictions on social network relations in the spare time arena. The article seeks to validate the typology theoretically and empirically and discusses what are the more important factors behind being socially marginalized in spare time in early adult life up to the age of 22. The analysis is based on theory of social network and life course transitions. Empirical analysis of the relationship between four adaptive situations and different types of spare time networks suggests that broad mixed networks have the best potential for social inclusion of these former students. The article discusses how this could be studied further by analyzing collected life course data of the special needs student's transitions.