The relationship between self-determination and academic achievement for adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
Teaching students with ID to make choices and set goals can raise their grades.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Nickerson et al. (2015) asked 480 middle- and high-school students with intellectual disabilities to fill out two surveys. One survey measured self-determination: choosing goals, making decisions, and solving problems. The other survey measured grades and test scores.
The team used a computer model to see if higher self-determination predicted better school marks.
What they found
Students who scored high on self-determination also earned higher grades. The link was strong and clear.
Teaching kids to set goals and speak up for themselves may directly lift their academic scores.
How this fits with other research
Rodríguez-Martínez et al. (2020) followed young adults with ID and found the same pattern: higher self-determination equals more life goals. The benefit lasts past high school.
Alrabiah (2021) seems to disagree. Saudi parents of high-school boys with ID said their sons had little self-determination and few chances to practice it. The gap is cultural, not statistical. The Saudi sample came from a country where teachers and parents often make choices for students.
May et al. (2013) looked at a different skill—attention switching—and also linked it to math scores in neurodivergent students. Together the papers show both executive skills and self-management skills matter for school success.
Why it matters
You can add self-determination targets to any academic IEP. Start small: let the student pick the order of tasks, set a timer, or self-score one worksheet. These micro-choices build the same skills that predicted higher grades in this large study.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that for students with intellectual disabilities, improved self-determination skills are positively correlated with productivity and organization during school and quality of life outcomes in adulthood. Despite extensive investigation in these areas, the predictive relationship between self-determination and academic achievement for students with intellectual disabilities has not been fully established. This study utilized the sample from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 of 480 adolescents with intellectual disabilities in the United States in an attempt to provide a possible empirical explanation of the relationship between academic achievement and self-determination, taking into account the covariates of gender, family income and urbanicity. The structural equation model was found to closely fit the data: all path coefficients were statistically significant. The results of this study identify a strong correlation between self-determination and academic achievement for adolescents with intellectual disabilities, indicating a linear relationship of these skills and supporting an increased focus on the teaching of self-determination skills.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.09.008