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Enjoyment of School
As a general summary of their attitude toward school, youth with disabilities were asked to report on a 4-point scale how much they enjoy school. Almost 3 of 10 youth with disabilities (29 percent) report enjoying school "a lot" (4 points; figure 14), in contrast with the 11 percent who say they don't enjoy school "at all" (1 point). These reports of strongly liking and disliking school are both more common than the rates at which youth in the general population "strongly agree" or "strongly disagree" that they enjoy school (15 percent and 4 percent, respectively, p < .001 for both comparisons).35 Thirty-eight percent of youth with disabilities report they enjoy school "pretty much," and 21 percent indicate "a little" enjoyment of school.
Figure 14: Youth with disabilities' reported enjoyment of school
Correlational analyses of the scale scores of youth with disabilities regarding their overall sense of enjoyment of school and those related to their other feelings about school show some statistically significant relationships. Feeling a part of school was correlated (r = .46, p < .001) with school enjoyment. Also statistically significantly related to school enjoyment are being involved in school-based activities (r = .28, p < .001), the ability to identify a caring adult at school (r = .24, p < .001), the acknowledgment that adults at school provide the services and supports youth need (r = .26, p < .001), feelings of safety at school (r = .19, p < .001), and feeling that school is academically difficult (r = .11, p < .001).
35 Calculated for 15- through 19-year-olds using data from the 1999 National Household Education Survey (Nolin et al. 2001). Note that the NLTS2 and NHES items differ in that NLTS2 asked youth to report the degree of their enjoyment of school (e.g., "a lot") whereas NHES asked youth their degree of agreement with the statement "I enjoy school" (e.g., "strongly agree").