Examining the Impact of Personal Factors on Scores on the Self‐Determination Inventory: Adult Report in Adults with Disabilities

Abstract

Background Self‐determination develops across the life course and plays an important role in the lives of people with disabilities throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. Self‐determination is also assumed to be an enduring characteristic which can be meaningfully assessed over time with development. Further, researchers have consistently found that personal factors, such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, and disability status may impact the development and expression of self‐determination for people with disabilities. Recently, the Self‐Determination Inventory: Adult Report (SDI:AR), a self‐report measure, was developed to assess self‐determination for adults with and without disabilities ages 18 and over. However, there has not been any comprehensive studies examining the impact of personal factors on self‐determination of adults with and without disabilities as measured by the SDI:AR. Such work will inform the impact of personal factors on self‐determination of adults with and without disabilities. Specific Aims The purpose of this study was to analyze data from the SDI:AR validation study to examine the impact of personal factors (age, gender, and disability label) on the expression of self‐determination in adults with and without disabilities. Method This study used multilevel linear models, and the sample included 541 adults with and without disabilities ages 18 and 71. Findings Results showed personal factors impacted overall self‐determination for adults with and without disabilities in complex ways. In general, adults without disabilities scored higher than adults with disabilities, especially adults with intellectual disability. Results also suggested that the SDI:AR could be a meaningful tool to measure adult self‐determination. Discussion Considering the significant yet complex impact on adult self‐determination, it is critical to provide supports and opportunities for self‐determination throughout adulthood by taking personal factors into account.

The Role of Personal and Environmental Factors in Autonomous Behaviour of People with Intellectual Disability

“…One of the personal factors was gender, where higher level of autonomy was determined in women than in men. The obtained result is in accordance with literature findings according to which adult women with ID are more successful in making choices, decision making and setting goals than adult men with ID (Hagiwara et al, 2020). It is possible that our results to a certain extent reflect differently shaped expectations regarding the independence and generally different social roles of men and women.…”

“…Thus, we assume that the increase in autonomy with calendar age may be the result of longer practice and application of skills. This assumption is supported by the results of research indicating that self-care and household-care skills and skills of organizing everyday activities (included in the Autonomy subscale in our research) of people with MOID can be improved by practicing (Kaljača & Dapčević, 2011) and that older adults with disabilities have a higher level of self-determination than younger adults, which the authors of the study attribute to individual growth (Hagiwara et al, 2020). Furthermore, it is possible that progress in the acquisition of skills of independent performance of various activities is accompanied by more frequent opportunities for adults with ID, provided by their social environment, to express interests, preferences and goals, and direct their actions.…”

“…Research studies have shown that people with intellectual disability (ID) have a low level of self-determination (Hagiwara et al, 2020;Mumbardó-Adam et al, 2018, Vega et al, 2018 and that there is a high use of substituted decision making arrangements for adults with ID (Uekert & Van Duizend, 2011). For those people, opportunities to make choices mostly involve deciding to some extent about issues such as daily routines or choosing leisure activities, while in making important life decisions, such as housing, work or selection of support providers, their autonomy is mainly limited or denied (Tichá et al, 2012).…”

Self-determination in minoritized autistic adolescents and adults

“…Compared to extensive interviews, SDI scores might be easier to adopt in clinical settings. Last, understanding the relationship between language and self-determination over time is important (Hagiwara et al, 2021a), both for developing supports and understanding development.…”

“…3) To generate integrated support for the relevance of DisCrit and Diversity Science based on quantitative and qualitative data; Per prior work (Hagiwara et al, 2021a;Shogren et al, 2018a), we expected categorical approaches to individual differences would not predict either score. As continuous measures of language predicted outcomes in autism (Magiati et al, 2014), we expected language to predict SDI self-report and SDI:PTR scores.…”