Abstract
Since the early 1990s, attention has been focused on the importance of self-determination in the education of students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of the construct of self-determination by examining the relationship between the Arc's Self-Determination Scale and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) Self-Determination Scale student and educator versions. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the theoretical structure of the Arc's Self-Determination Scale and the AIR Self-Determination–Student Scale was supported by the data, while the proposed theoretical structure of the AIR Self-Determination–Educator Scale was not. The analyses suggested that each of the measures of self-determination was measuring a different aspect of the self-determination construct (i.e., it was not possible to create a higher order factor comprising each of the assessments); thus issues related to the goals of the research and the underlying theoretical perspective of each measure must be considered when determining the most appropriate measure of self-determination in research and practice. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 94-107 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Assessment for Effective Intervention |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2008 |
Keywords
- assessment
- self-determination
- special education
- structural equation modeling
- students with disabilities