Project Description:
Promoting and enhancing the self-determination of youth with disabilities has become best practice in transition services. However, despite the wide visibility of the importance of self-determination to achieve positive life outcomes for youth with disabilities, there is very little research to document both the capacity of interventions designed to promote such outcomes to actually do so and of the impact of such interventions (and enhanced self-determination) on outcomes for youth. Researchers at The Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities and the Beach Center on Disability, both at the University of Kansas, and the Center on Self-Determination at the Oregon Health Sciences University propose to conduct a project under the NIDRR Disability Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) competition on ?Research Projects for Stabilizing and Improving Lives of Persons with Disabilities,? priority (a) ?Self-Determination in Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Disabilities? to address this gap in the knowledge base. The proposed project will conduct three semi-longitudinal, national research studies examining the impact of interventions to promote the self-determination of students with high incidence (learning disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, etc.) and low incidence disabilities (moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, multiple disabilities, severe autism), and students who are at-risk for poor adult outcomes (students with disabilities from foster systems, students who have had interactions with the juvenile justice system, etc.) on student self-determination and on the impact of self-determination on adult outcomes and quality of life.
Study 1: Researchers at the University of Kansas will take the lead on a study to examine the impact of instruction to promote self-determination for youth with high incidence disabilities. The study will examine self-determination as both a dependent and independent variable, and thus will provide data to validate the self-determination construct, to show the efficacy of intensity of treatment to promote self-determination on that outcome (e.g., promoting self-determination), and examine the impact of promoting self-determination on a wide array of adult outcomes for youth, including employment, independent living, and quality of life. The study will utilize a randomized trial, placebo control group design in which 300 students with high incidence disabilities are randomly assigned (by school district) to one of three groups (n = 100 per group). The multiple levels of the treatment will involve a placebo control group (e.g., students participate in a treatment, but one that is not anticipated to impact the outcomes of self-determination), a ?student involvement only? intervention group in which students participate only in activities designed to promote their involvement in educational planning and decision-making, and a comprehensive treatment group in which students receive multiple treatments (e.g., student involvement, instruction infused into all courses, etc.). Students involved will be high school sophomores with high incidence disabilities (learning disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, etc.). We will use multiple measures of self-determination (The Arc?s Self-Determination Scale, the AIR Self-Determination Scale, The Minnesota Self-Determination Scales (Decision-Making Preference Scale; Importance Scale), and the ChoiceMaker Self-Determination Assessment. All students will be assessed at baseline (prior to intervention), and annually through their final three years of school. We will also collect data with regard to fidelity of treatment using appropriate instruments related to the interventions implemented. Finally, we will collect data on other variables hypothesized to impact self-determination and adult outcomes (level of intelligence, # of vocational courses, etc.) and on demographic variables in general. At the end of each student?s senior year we will collect data on self-determination for the final time, and will examine differences between groups on self-determination as a function of treatment group and other relevant variables. This will provide data with regard to construct validity for the SD construct, and will provide data with regard to the impact of interventions, at a high and low intensity level, to promote self-determination on student self-determination. Then, during the final two years of the project, we will conduct a follow-up study of all students involved in the intervention phase of the study to determine the impact of self-determination on adult outcomes, including quality of life, employment outcomes, independent living and community inclusion outcomes, and so forth. We will collect follow up data one and two years post graduation for all students.
Study 2: The second study, also conducted with the University of Kansas site as the lead, will examine self-determination, career development, and employment/living outcomes for adolescents with severe disabilities. Researchers at KU have been involved with a process infusing self-determination throughout public school programs for students ages 18-21, the majority of whom are students with severe disabilities who need additional time to prepare for the transition to adulthood. This process, called ?Beyond High School? involves a multi-stage, multi-component implementation of practices that teach students skills they need to self-direct educational planning, engage students in goal setting related to adult outcome areas, and support students to self-direct many aspects of the learning and implementation process. In the Beyond High School model, teachers and other stakeholders support the student to identify his or her own job and career preferences and to set goals related to those preferences. Only at that point in time does job development begin, and with the active involvement of the student. In addition, this study will actively involve adult employment specialists, including vocational rehabilitation counselors, by implementing a decision-making process, called the Self-Determined Career Development Model, which has been designed and evaluated to enable VR and others to support consumers with disabilities to self-regulate the problem solving process leading to job placement.
We will again use a randomized trial, placebo control group design in which 100 students with severe disabilities are assigned (randomly, by district) to either a control group (which will be traditional 18-21 program with a placebo intervention from the project that is not anticipated to impact self-determination) or a treatment group, which receives the Beyond High School/SDCDM intervention. It is not appropriate to administer self-report measures of self-determination such as those used in study 1 to students with severe disabilities, so we will measure treatment impact through single subject research designs and through the use of the Goal Attainment Scaling process, which can be linked to student goal setting activities and validate student achievement of educationally relevant goals. Student will be involved at the age of 18 and will participate (in either the control or treatment group) through the age of 21. At the end of the third project year, we will begin to collect data on student outcomes pertaining to employment (employed/unemployed, full or part time, wages earned, benefits, etc.), independent living, and other transition-related outcomes. We will do so for students in both the control and treatment groups at the end of the 18-21 program and at one and two years out of school, and will examine differences between groups in initial and subsequent outcomes.
Study 3. The third study will be conducted with the OHSU Research team as the lead investigators, and will involve a randomized control study involving 100 youth receiving special education who are in the foster care system and are between the ages of 16 and 21. This group of students are disproportionately represented in special education (40-50%) and are at high risk for homelessness, unemployment and involvement with the juvenile justice and adult criminal systems. The intervention to be evaluated will be intensive, based on the Center on Self-Determination?s TAKE CHARGE for the future program and will be implement through non-school settings, such as the students foster care setting, Independent Living programs and one-stops. Intervention will include coaching in the in-situ application of self-determination related skills and mentorship. Measurement will be similar to those tools identified in the first study, and after three years of intensive treatment, the final two years will examine adult employment, post-secondary education, independent living, and community integration outcomes through a follow-along study component.
Across all studies we will implement multiple dissemination strategies to get information to key stakeholder groups, including parents, teachers, and policy makers through multiple means and multiple networks, including the UCEDD network, the NIDRR partner networks, and so forth.
