Disability self-worth and personal meaning relate to psychosocial functioning among employed U.S. adults with LD and ADHD.

PURPOSE/

OBJECTIVE

Personal disability identity (PDI) refers to disability self-concept and includes various attitudes toward disability. In this study, we examined whether the PDI attitudes of disability self-worth and personal meaning were predictors of psychosocial functioning.

METHOD/

DESIGN

Using hierarchical regression to control for sociodemographic and disability characteristics, we examined the unique contributions of these two PDI attitudes to life satisfaction, anxiety/depression, and general self-efficacy in a sample of 1,203 employed U.S. adults with LD and/or ADHD.

RESULTS

PDI attitudes (disability self-worth and personal meaning) explained significant additional variance on both outcomes, after accounting for control variables. Results indicated that (a) self-worth (β = -.25, p < .001) and personal meaning (β = -.24, p < .001) were negatively associated with anxiety/depression, (b) self-worth was positively associated with general self-efficacy (β = .31, p < .001), and (c) personal meaning was positively associated with life satisfaction (β = .30, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Present findings suggest that disability identity is worthy of attention in research on neurodevelopmental disabilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).