General Competencies
To obtain a broader picture of how youth with disabilities represent more general competencies than are assessed with domain-specific questions, NLTS2 asked youth to report in an in-person interview25 the extent to which their behavior reflects skills associated with two subscales of the Arc's Self-Determination Scale—those reflecting personal autonomy and psychological empowerment (Wehmeyer 1997). Items were selected from The Arc's Self-Determination Scale (Wehmeyer 2000) that address these topics; they were selected from among those in the original instrument with the highest factor loading and face validity to reflect these conceptual domains. Responses to all items are self-reports by youth.
Behavior is considered to be autonomous if a person acts independently according to his or her own preferences, interests, and abilities without undue external influence or interference (Wehmeyer 2000). Items in the personal autonomy subscale include those assessing independence in personal care, interacting with the environment, pursuing interests in the community, and personal expression; scores are associated with the ability to make choices and act on personal preferences and beliefs related to youth's personal and social lives.26
Responses were reported on a 4-point scale ranging from "not even when I have the chance" (1 point) to "every time I have the chance" (4 points). A scale of personal autonomy created by summing response values across the individual items ranges from 10 (all responses "not even when I have the chance") to 40 (all responses "every time I have the chance"); values are reported as low (10 to 20), medium (21 to 30), and high (31 to 40). Very few youth with disabilities score in the low range for personal autonomy (2 percent), whereas about equal proportions score in the medium and high ranges (48 percent and 50 percent, respectively; figure 8).
Psychological empowerment refers to a combination of attitudes and abilities leading individuals to believe they have the ability to achieve a desired outcome (Ward 1988; Zimmerman 1990). Items used in this subscale ask youth to consider and select one of two opposing views of their abilities in the areas of decision-making, perseverance, and locus of control.27 Items are scored "0" to reflect a nonempowered self-evaluation or "1" to reflect an empowered self-evaluation. A summative scale of psychological empowerment ranges from 0 to 6, with scores reported as low (0 to 2), medium (3 to 4), and high (5 to 6). Most youth (82 percent) score in the high range on the psychological empowerment subscale measure; 3 percent score in the low category.
25 Although the in-person interview was conducted with all youth for whom a direct assessment of academic skills was completed, responses are included here only for the subsample of youth who were able to respond for themselves to the Wave 2 telephone interview or mail survey.
26 Personal autonomy items include: I keep my own personal items together; I keep good personal care and grooming; I make friends with other kids my age; I keep my appointments and meetings; I plan weekend activities that I like to do; I am involved in school-related activities; I volunteer for things that I am interested in; I go to restaurants that I like; I choose gifts to give to family and friends, and I choose how to spend my personal money.
27 Psychological empowerment items include: I tell others when I have a new or different opinion, or I usually agree with others' opinions and/or ideas; I can make my own decisions, or Other people make decisions for me; I can get what I want by working hard, or I need good luck to get what I want; I keep trying even after I get something wrong, or It is no use to keep trying because it will not work; I usually make good choices, or I usually do not make good choices; and I will be able to make choices that are important to me, or My choices will not be honored.
