In the Netherlands there exist special residential facilities for youths with mild mental disabilities who have severe behaviour problems. This investigation was initially prompted by the question how people who have in the past spent some time in such residential care, are doing now. This question was investigated in two substudies, which together form the topic of this dissertation. The first substudy focused on the social position of these mildly mentally disabled people, the second on their quality of life. The latter aspect was investigated using a model based on the quality of integration and well-being. Former residents’ social position A small proportion of people with a mild mental disability spend a brief period of their lives in residential care. The Netherlands has two institutions (Groot Emaus in Ermelo and De Beele in Voorst) which provide residential care for young people with a mild mental disability who have such severe behaviour problems that they cannot be helped at other institutions. It is of great interest both to society at large and to the institutions concerned how young people who were discharged from residential care some time ago are coping now. In the first substudy, former residents - all of whom had been discharged from residential care some years ago - as well as their parents and counselors and the police, were asked about their current situation. Their social position was defined in chapter 2 as ‘an individual’s position in society in relation to others, keeping in mind that this position fluctuates with time and is based on the integration of his or her competences with the characteristics of his or her social surroundings’. The study’s design, execution and results with respect to individuals’ social position are described in chapter 3. A questionnaire was developed which was used during the interviews with 88 former residents. Most subjects had a satisfactory social position, certainly when compared to their former situation. Nor did information supplied by parents, ...