Comparison of conversational adjustments made in response to listener feedback by 22 community-based and 22 institutionalized adults with mental retardation found that community-based subjects used certain sophisticated repair strategies more often than did institutionalized subjects. However, neither group was able to clarify their conversation…

This response to a study by D. Strauss and T. Kastner, which compared mortality rates for individuals with mental retardation in either community or institutional settings, notes that all previous research on this subject had found institutional mortality rates higher than those in the community. Methodological concerns are raised about the study.…

While an increased awareness of the dehumanizing and organizationally self-defeating qualities of residential institutions has fostered a movement toward community-based care, little research has been done to measure the "institutionality" of the alternate settings. As a part of a larger study aimed at describing alternative settings for…

This survey of nine institutional and community settings serving persons with severe handicaps found (1) in groups managed by one or two staff, staff interactions, and client adaptive functioning improved with decreased group size; and (2) improvement in staff performance and client behavior from addition of staff to a client group was marginal or…