Should Schools Expect Poor Physical and Mental Health, Social Adjustment, and Participation Outcomes in Students with Disability?

Abstract

The literature on whether students with disabilities have worse physical and mental health, social adjustment, and participation outcomes when compared to their peers without disabilities is largely inconclusive. While the majority of case control studies showed significantly worse outcomes for students with disabilities; the proportion of variance accounted for is rarely reported. The current study used a population cross-sectional approach to determine the classification ability of commonly used screening and outcome measures in determining the disability status. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify the variables, if any, that best predicted the presence of disability. Results of univariate discriminant function analyses suggest that across the board, the sensitivity of the outcome/screening tools to correctly identify students with a disability was 31.9% higher than the related Positive Predictive Value (PPV). The lower PPV and Positive Likelihood Ratio (LR+) scores suggest that the included measures had limited discriminant ability (17.6% to 40.3%) in accurately identifying students at-risk for further assessment. Results of multivariate analyses suggested that poor health and hyperactivity increased the odds of having a disability about two to three times, while poor close perceived friendship and academic competences predicted disability with roughly the same magnitude. Overall, the findings of the current study highlight the need for researchers and clinicians to familiarize themselves with the psychometric properties of measures, and be cautious in matching the function of the measures with their research and clinical needs.

The effect of Imaginary Working Qigong on the psychological well-being of college students

“…[ 4 , 68 ] Differences between college students and their noncollege peers are generally understudied, but the available evidence shows that various mental disorders are more frequent in college students than in nonstudent populations of a similar age group due to the multiple stressors and lifestyle changes involved. [ 8 – 10 , 69 , 70 ] If left ignored and untreated, all of these may lead to students dropping out of college, attempting or committing suicide, or engaging in other risky, dangerous behaviors. [ 71 – 73 ] Because of traditional beliefs and attitudes to mental problems among general population in many societies, people who seek for psychological counseling will not be welcomed or accepted by peers and the society; thus, it is estimated that only a minority of college students with mental health problems seek and receive adequate help.…”

Advancements in measurement and methodology in Occupational Therapy: The contribution of Professor Sylvia Rodger

“…Measures can be prognostically used to: (i) predict future abilities or needs; (ii) determine suitability for and selection of interventions; or (iii) predict and plan for amount (dosage) of intervention (Vaz et al ., ; Wade, ). Measures may also be used analytically to: (i) explain or understand the person by describing their condition or functional abilities; (ii) diagnose or classify subgroups of clinical populations; (iii) allow exploration of relationship between factors; (iv) report on the responsiveness to a particular intervention by measuring change in status over time by detecting within subject change or between subgroup differences; and (v) enable comparisons between clinical groups (Streiner & Norman, ; Vaz et al ., ; Wade, ). Professor Rodger's work in the area of occupational therapy assessments, has traversed many of these categories.…”

A Proposed Functional Abilities Classification Tool for Developmental Disorders Affecting Learning and Behaviour

“…The FACT defines social skills as the ability to interact successfully with others (Vaz et al, 2015), including the social developmental milestones of play (e.g., independent, parallel, interactive, functional, symbolic, imaginary), understanding and use of humor, sarcasm, non-literal language, body language, facial expressions, gestures, and culturally appropriate social conventions such as greeting, sharing, and the to-and-fro of social interactions.…”

“…Students with disabilities have been found to interact less with the school environment, including the teacher, other students, and classroom activities (McIntosh et al, 1993;Selanikyo et al, 2017). Interactions between children with DDALB and their environments at school are complex and not fully understood (Sutherland et al, 2008;Vaz et al, 2015). Children with disabilities tend to engage cooperatively less at school than children without disabilities (Hestenes and Carroll, 2000) and can elicit reactions from the school environment.…”