Biographic Genesis of Vocational Success or Failure of Neurodivergent People

This article focuses on understanding the pathways of vocational success or failure of people self-identifying as neurodivergent. Following a grounded theory approach, 16 narrative biographical interviews were conducted. From these interviews, pathways towards vocational success or failure were extracted that differed in the resources, strategies and contextual conditions within biographical phases of the interviewees. Two paths led towards vocational hardship and failure: interviewees with relatively poor starting resources were mostly situated in neuronormative contexts, following the pathways of (a) extensive self-adaptation and (b) self-conflicting opposition. Two other paths formed around neurodivergent people with better resources to cope with vocational challenges due to their social position, which rather placed them in neurotolerant or neurointegrative contexts in which they were able to follow the pathways of (a) sustainable self-adaptation and (b) context shaping. The results of the study show that traits and resources of the individual interact with properties of the context, shaping chances for vocational success biographically.