20490
Self-Determination Skills in Transition-Age Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The transition to adulthood entails significant changes in expectations for autonomy, employment, and postsecondary education. For higher functioning youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD), this transition is especially challenging due to core ASD symptoms (Ghaziuddin et al., 1998; Siminoff et al., 2008) and adult outcomes are poor (Howlin et al., 2004; Shattuck et al., 2012). Research on other clinical populations indicates that greater self-determination, or the skills, knowledge, and beliefs to engage in goal-directed and autonomous behavior, predicts positive adult outcomes (e.g., Wehmeyer & Schwartz, 1998). Research on self-determination in HFASD, though, is extremely limited. Such investigations may provide insights into the design of more effective transition interventions for youth with HFASD.
Objectives:
The aim of this study was to determine if self-determination is specific problem for youth with HFASD, or a more general tendency common to related clinical groups, such as ADHD.
Methods:
The study included 75 youth; 31 with HFASD, 26 with ADHD, and 18 TD (see Table 1). Participants had fullscale IQs ≥ 75. ASD diagnosis was confirmed with the ADOS-G. Self-determination was assessed with two scales. The 7 Component Self-Determination Skills parent report (7 Skills; Carter et al., 2013) addresses primary self-determination skills, such as Self-Advocacy or ‘‘knowing one’s rights, communicating them effectively”. The 7 Skills assesses the child’s ability on each domain (i.e., Performance scale) as well as how important each domain is to a parent (i.e., Importance scale). The Air Self-Determination Scale Parent and Student Versions (AIR; Wolman et al., 1994) measured two dimensions of self-determination: Capacity refers to the students’ knowledge, abilities, and perceptions that enable them to be self-determined, and Opportunity refers to the students’ chances to use their knowledge and abilities.
Results:
A MANOVA with the Importance and Performance scales of the 7 Skills parent report as the dependent variables, Diagnostic Group, and IQ as a covariate revealed a significant group effect for only the Performance scale, Wilks’ Λ = .48, F (28, 110) = 1.65, p = .04, η2 = 0.30 (See Table 2). In particular, parents regarded Self-Advocacy/Leadership as specifically problematic for youth with HFASD compared to youth with ADHD or TD (see Table 2). The AIR Parent Version indicated that youth with developmental disabilities and typical development had a comparable amount of opportunities to demonstrate self-determination, but students with developmental disabilities had significantly less capacity for self-determination than TD peers (see Table 2). Correlations revealed that parent reports of level of children’s self-determination capacity and self-awareness significantly decreased across age in the ASD but not the ADHD or TD groups.
Conclusions:
The data indicated that parents of youth with and without developmental disabilities thought learning self-determination skills was important for their children. Self-advocacy and leadership was identified as particularly problematic for youth with HFASD. Further, self-determination capacity and self-awareness may not be developing on par with age specifically for youth with HFASD, leaving them unprepared for adulthood. Self-advocacy and self-awareness are essential for adult autonomy and may be prime targets for transition intervention for youth with HFASD.