THE EFFECTS OF STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS AMONG PHYSICALLY DISABLED COLLEGE STUDENTS.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible effects and relationships among life change events and acceptance of disability, social assets, and health status. The subjects of this study were 80 physically disabled college students at The University of Arizona, Pima Community College, and Arizona State University. The subjects were administered the College Schedule of Recent Experience, a Social Assets Scale (SA), the Acceptance of Disability Scale (AD), and a health index. Completion of the health index form was conducted through personal interview. The data were analyzed by means of several statistical procedures. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine relationships among the variables. Analyses of variance were conducted to test for significant differences in health outcome between low and high scoring students in life change, acceptance of disability and social assets. Stepwise multiple regressions were carried out to examine the predictive ability of the variables for AD and health outcome. T-tests of means were used to explore differences between students with acquired disabilities and students who were congenitally disabled. In general, the results of the study indicate that life change relates positively to health outcome of physically disabled students. Neither acceptance of disability nor social assets relates strongly with health outcome measures.