Test Accommodations and Positive affect among Adolescents with Learning Disabilities: The Mediating Role of Attitudes, Academic Self-efficacy, Loneliness and Hope

The growing number of students with Learning Disabilities (LD) who are granted test accommodations raises many theoretical questions with educational implications. The aim of the current study is to examine levels of positive affect as an indicator of wellbeing among students with LD who receive tes...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Michal Einav, Adi Sharabi, Tal Even-hen Peter, Malka Margalit
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Athens Institute for Education and Research 2018-11-01
Series:Athens Journal of Education
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.athensjournals.gr/education/2018-5-4-1-Einav.pdf
Description
Summary:The growing number of students with Learning Disabilities (LD) who are granted test accommodations raises many theoretical questions with educational implications. The aim of the current study is to examine levels of positive affect as an indicator of wellbeing among students with LD who receive test accommodations and to identify the mediating role of personal resources such as academic self-efficacy, hope, attitudes towards test accommodations and loneliness. Two groups of junior high school students (157 students with LD and 278 typical development peers) completed questionnaires about their attitudes towards test accommodations, their positive affect, academic self-efficacy, loneliness and hope. Results indicate that students with LD who are entitled to test accommodations reported lower levels of academic self-efficacy, hope and positive affect compared to their typical development peers. A serial multiple mediation analysis demonstrates that personal resources as well as attitudes fully mediated the relations between receiving such accommodations and positive affect. This study offers unique, though preliminary, findings about the important relations between receiving test accommodations and attitudes about them, positive affect and personal resources by providing a deeper look at the complexity of the relations between the factors that predict students’ wellbeing.
ISSN:2241-7958