جودة الحياة وعلاقتها بالمساندة الاجتماعية لدى عينة من المعاقين بصرياً في سلطنة عمان
The study aimed to research the relationship between the quality of life and the social support for a sample of visually impaired students in the Sultanate of Oman. The number of the participants reached 117 persons with visual impairment (60 visually impaired males and 57 visually impaired females) in Omar bin Al-Khattab Institute of Blind. The participants’ ages ranged between 10 to 18 years. It also studies the extent to which the relationship is affected by demographic variables such as gender and disability. The study uses the descriptive approach where the scales of quality of life and social support have been applied. The researcher reached the following results: the majority of the visual impaired got a high level in the quality of life according to the quality life scale which were satisfaction with life, hope in the future, and economic efficiency. Most of the participants got a high level of social support from family, friends, and other important people in their lives. In addition, the study results showed a positive correlation relationship of statistical significant at the level (0.01) between the level of quality of life and the social support for a sample of visually impaired. There were no differences of a statistical significant at the level (0.05) between males and females at all the standards of quality of life scale and the total score in a sample of visually impaired. There were no differences of a statistical significant at the level (0.05) in all the standards of quality of life scale for a sample of visually impaired except the” hope in future” standard that showed differences between a visually impaired student and a blind student in the level of quality of life in a favor of the visually impaired student. There were no differences of a statistical significant at the level (0.05) between males and females in all the standards of social support scale for a sample of visually impaired. There were no differences of a statistical significant at the level (0.05) in all the standards of social support scale of a sample of visually impaired except the “social support from the family” standard that showed differences between visually impaired student and a blind student at the level of social support in favor of the visually impaired. (Author’s abstract)