University Students with Reading Difficulties: Do Perceived Supports and Comorbid Difficulties Predict Well‐Being and GPA?

Abstract

We examined the impact of the number of comorbid difficulties, social support, and community support on life satisfaction and academic achievement among 120 university students or recent graduates with self‐reported reading difficulties. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing perceived social support, perceived community support, the number of comorbid difficulties in addition to reading difficulty, life satisfaction, and academic achievement (grade point average). Results supported a main effect model in which the number of comorbid difficulties and social, but not community, support predicted life satisfaction. Social and community support did not moderate the relationship between the number of comorbid difficulties and life satisfaction, lending no support to the buffering effect hypothesis. However, a mediation model showed that social support partially mediated the relationship between the number of comorbid difficulties and life satisfaction. Academic achievement did not correlate with any included variable.

Development of an Abbreviated Adult Reading History Questionnaire (ARHQ-Brief) Using a Machine Learning Approach

“…For instance, Parrila et al (2003) divided their 27 ARHQ-R items into three components: Elementary School, Current Status, and Current Reading Motivation. The internal consistency of eight Elementary School items was between 0.77 and 0.93 (Deacon et al, 2012(Deacon et al, , 2017Fitchen et al, 2014;Metsala et al, 2019;Mourgues et al, 2014;Stack-Cutler et al, 2016), while that of the 12 Current Status items was between 0.70 and 0.80 (Mourgues et al, 2014;Stack-Cutler et al, 2016) and that of the seven Current Reading Motivation items was above 0.64 (Mourgues et al, 2014). Parrila et al (2007) proposed another version of ARHQ-R with only 10 items related to Elementary Education with its internal consistency between 0.90 and 0.96 (Al Dahhan et al, 2014;Parrila et al, 2007).…”

Attitudes and Knowledge About Learning Disabilities: A Comparison Between Arabic- and Hebrew-Speaking University Students

“…This is notable, as social support appears to be important for academic adjustment and well-being (Collings, Swanson, & Watkins, 2014; Zumbrunn McKim, Buhs, & Hawley, 2014) as well as for self-esteem (Nalavany, Carawan, & Rennick, 2011) among students with SLD. Support from friends and significant others has been shown to have a positive impact on the life satisfaction of university students with difficulties (Stack-Cutler, Parrila, & Torppa, 2015). Thus, it is important to foster a more communal and supportive atmosphere on campus.…”

Mental Health in Emerging Adults With ADHD and/or Specific Learning Disabilities: A Scoping Review

“…For SLD only, two of the seven articles focused on reading difficulties (Smith, 2017;Stack-Cutler et al, 2015), one provided some information on disability, although some of the definitions that were provided (e.g., auditory, visual, and organizational difficulties) did not match DSM criteria for SLD (Reed et al, 2011), and none of the studies incorporated comorbidities. Of the six studies looking at both SLD and ADHD, one examined ADHD subtypes compared to dyslexia (Nelson & Gregg, 2012), another compared those with ADHD, reading, and math disabilities (Rinsky, 2012), and two compared those with either ADHD or SLD rather than studying those who had both diagnoses (Reed et al, 2015;Vaccaro et al, 2019).…”

“…One study found greater support from family than friends, but perceived social support did not correlate with positive self-concept (Hellstrom-Kinder, 2013), and the other two studies found that increased perceptions of social support was related to higher life satisfaction (Smith, 2017;Stack-Cutler et al, 2015). Having comorbid disorders resulted in lower levels of social support and life satisfaction (Stack-Cutler et al, 2015). Using coping strategies (Vaccaro et al, 2019) and perceived parental support (Rosetti, 2014) were protective factors in transitioning effectively to postsecondary institutions, but there was little attention to young adults who choose other pathways during their transition to adulthood (e.g., entering the workforce, apprenticeships, military, etc.…”