Comparison on Well-Being, Engagement and Perceived School Climate in Secondary School Students with Learning Difficulties and Specific Learning Disorders: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Reading and writing skills influence the social status of students, exerting effects not only on learning, but also on wellbeing. This study aimed to assess the impact of diagnosis of specific learning disorder on well-being in secondary-school students, comparing students with a diagnosis of specific learning disorder (SLD-group), students showing learning difficulties without diagnosis (LD-group) and students without learning difficulties (control-group). Students were tested with neuropsychological screening tests in order to identify learning difficulties and were further assessed by means of psychological and school well-being questionnaires. The results show that LD group perceive themselves as having a low sense of mastery and autonomy, less interest and engagement in daily activities and low peer social support than their schoolmates. This result highlights, for the LD group, a low well-being experience, which is not observed in the SLD and control groups. On the contrary, SLD group students do not differ from control group students in any dimensions except for the perceived parents’ support and involvement in school life, in which the SLD group show the highest scores. This work underlines the importance of having a diagnosis as it seems to work as a protective factor for both the psychological and school well-being of the student.

The Association between University Students’ Achievement Goal Orientation and Academic Engagement: Examining the Mediating Role of Perceived School Climate and Academic Self-Efficacy

“…MAGs help students retain and construct resources (such as interest and motivation to learn) and a willingness to invest more psychological costs. However, the study also found that PAGs positively predict PSC, which is different from existing research [56]. A possible explanation is that PAGs make students lose internal personal resources, such as interest and motivation to learn, which requires external resources (e.g., a positive school climate) to intervene in the loss of these resources, such as reducing the difficulty of learning tasks to avoid students losing confidence in learning.…”

Telerehabilitation and Wellbeing Experience in Children with Special Needs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…From a social and ecological perspective, schools can be considered as environments in which multifaceted interactions occur at the environmental, organizational and individual level [15], together with the effect of these different levels of interactions on individual and collective health and well-being. This is not surprising, since the impact of the school context on well-being is well recognized by recent literature [16][17][18]. In this vein, psychological well-being is understood and studied by adopting the positive psychology perspective, namely conditions and processes that contribute to the optimal functioning of individuals, groups, and institutions [19].…”

The role of educational support in the development of subjective well‐being in Finnish general upper secondary education

“…Moreover, students with learning difficulties have been shown to be more sensitive to the supportiveness of adults at school than their peers (Lombardi et al, 2021). SWB.…”

“…On the other hand, support, which can be defined as providing psychological, special educational, and material resources, may help individuals cope with stress and self (Chu et al, 2010; Tian et al, 2013) and has been found to be a significant predictor of secondary education students' SWB and life satisfaction (Poudel et al, 2020). Moreover, students with learning difficulties have been shown to be more sensitive to the supportiveness of adults at school than their peers (Lombardi et al, 2021).…”