Life Satisfaction Reports of Adolescents with Learning Disabilities and Normally Achieving Adolescents

Abstract

Reports of life satisfaction, as measured by the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS; Huebner, 1994b) of 80 adolescents diagnosed with a learning disability (LD) were compared to the reports of a matched sample of 80 normally achieving (NA) adolescents. The results provide preliminary psycho-metric support for the use of the MSLSS with adolescents with LD in research contexts. Contrary to studies of other groups of students with mild disabilities, comparisons of mean levels of overall life satisfaction and satisfaction in five specific domains (family, friends, school, self, and living environment) revealed no differences between adolescent students with LD and NA adolescents. Both groups of students reported positive overall and domain-specific life satisfaction levels. Implications for future research and delivery of services to adolescents with LD were discussed.

The role of positive psychology constructs in predicting life satisfaction in adolescents with and without cognitive disabilities: An exploratory study

“…These differences in agency and pathways thinking in students with and without cognitive disabilities needs to be further evaluated, particularly as they relate to the mean-level differences on the self-regulation subscale of the ASDA. In terms of life satisfaction, there is a small research base that suggests that students with and without disabilities (Brantley et al, 2002;Griffin, 2000;McCullough & Huebner, 2003) do not significantly differ in their global life satisfaction, supporting our findings in this study, but that they do differ on particular domains of life satisfaction (not assessed in this study), including satisfaction with their friends. Thus, further research is needed to replicate and further evaluate mean-level differences in global and domain-specific aspects of life satisfaction, as well as differences in autonomy, selfrealization, and optimism in students with and without cognitive disabilities.…”

“…Each domain has seven items and scores can range from 7 to 42 within each domain, with higher scores indicating greater life satisfaction. The MSLSS has been shown to have adequate reliability and validity in students without disabilities (Gilman et al, 2000;Huebner, 1994;Huebner et al, 1998) and in students with cognitive disabilities (Brantley, Huebner, & Nagle, 2002;McCullough & Huebner, 2003). Cronbach's alpha values in this study were 0.91 and 0.86 for the global domain in students without disabilities and in students with cognitive disabilities, respectively.…”

“…However, Schalock (2004) identified positive psychology as a component of the ''emerging disability paradigm'' (p. 204) because of its implications for organizing conceptions of personal well-being in people with intellectual disabilities. And the growing body of research on promoting strengths in adolescents with disabilities (Clark, Olympia, Jensen, Heathfield, & Jenson, 2004;Grant, Ramcharan, & Goward, 2003;McCullough & Huebner, 2003) suggests that the positive psychology movement has brought increased attention to the importance of building on positive characteristics as a means to promote valued outcomes in adolescents both with and without disabilities. Positive psychology research, however, is still in its infancy and, to some degree, still occurs in relative isolation.…”

Youth Life Satisfaction: A Review of the Literature

“…Greenspoon and Saklofske 1997;Huebner et al 2000a, b;Kuntsche and Gmel 2004;Leung and Zhang 2000;Neto 2001;Nickerson and Nagle 2004;Park and Huebner 2005), as well as, among studies involving special groups (e.g. Brantley et al 2002;McCullough and Huebner 2003). However, it is noteworthy that research findings also demonstrate that global LS tends to decline slightly with the onset and progression of adolescence and that these findings are similarly supported by international research, including those from: America (e.g.…”

“…Diener 1994), but ranged from low to non-significant for the MMD students (cf. McCullough and Huebner 2003). Similarly, increasing awareness of the effect of community integration and inclusion for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities has been growing.…”