A Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Self-Determination Between Groups of Adolescents With Intellectual Disability or Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Promoting self-determination has been identified as an important practice for the successful transition of youth and young adults with disabilities, and numerous studies have examined the relationship between levels of self-determination and transition-related and postsecondary outcomes. Only a few such studies, however, have examined the global self-determination of students with disabilities. The majority of those studies measured self-determination using The Arc’s Self-Determination Scale (SDS) and involved students with intellectual disability (ID) or learning disabilities (LD), examining the impact of interventions, environment, disability category, intelligence level, and gender on self-determination. Although students with intellectual and LD are often studied as a single group, for students with cognitive disabilities, there have been no studies that examine whether assessments are measuring the same construct within these two populations. The purpose of this study is to test for measurement invariance to examine further whether a measure like the SDS is assessing the same concept in students with ID and in students with LD by conducting analysis with a series of multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results showed that the SDS is measuring the same construct across both groups; however, significant differences in both groups were found in latent variances/covariances and latent means.