Living with support in the community: predictors of satisfaction with life

Ensuring that people with an intellectual disability have normative levels of life satisfaction is increasingly considered a worthy goal for service providers. This review concerns the determinants of such satisfaction and embeds this literature within the Homeostatic Theory of Subjective Well-Being. This posits that life satisfaction is under considerable endogenous control and, as a consequence, does not normally vary in sympathy with changes in the external environment. This situation changes, however, if the environment is sufficiently aversive to defeat such homeostatic control. Under these conditions the circumstances of living correlate with life satisfaction as they wrest control away from the homeostatic system. One important implication is that the measure of life satisfaction may or may not be a sensitive indicator for changes in service provision, depending on the functional status of the homeostatic system. MRDD Research Reviews 7:99-104, 2001. (c) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Living with support in a home in the community: predictors of behavioral development and household and community activity

The purpose of this article was to review studies of behavioral development and household and community activity among adults with mental retardation living in community residential services and to distill knowledge about the factors that influence outcome. Research points to behavioral development occurring across the full spectrum of disability but influenced by mental retardation syndrome and the acquisition of pivotal skills. However, engagement in household and community activities has been found to be strongly related to individual adaptive behavior. People with more severe mental retardation are vulnerable to leading lives characterized by underoccupation and lack of community involvement. Moving from institutional to community-based residential services may be accompanied by significant increases in adaptive behavior, but a plateau effect on subsequent development has also been reported. There is substantial evidence to suggest that key aspects of effective teaching technology may be absent in community-based residential environments. Community settings support greater engagement in household and community activities than institutions. Ordinary housing stock and normative architecture and standards of material enrichment are to be preferred. The use of normative housing constrains group living to relatively small scale, but there is little evidence that smaller size within this range is to be preferred to larger size. There is little evidence to suggest that higher staff-to-resident ratios lead to uniformly better outcomes, but staff orientation, working methods, and performance are important influences. Little is known about what precise characteristics of community location give rise to greater community integration. MRDD Research Reviews 7:75-83, 2001.     

Living well: a self-determination theory perspective on eudaimonia

This article distinguishes between hedonic and eudaimonic approaches to wellness, with the former focusing on the outcome of happiness or pleasure and the latter focusing not so much on outcomes as on the process of living well. We present a model of eudaimonia that is based in self-determination theory, arguing that eudaimonic living can be characterized in terms of four motivational concepts: (1) pursuing intrinsic goals and values for their own sake, including personal growth, relationships, community, and health, rather than extrinsic goals and values, such as wealth, fame, image, and power; (2) behaving in autonomous, volitional, or consensual ways, rather than heteronomous or controlled ways; (3) being mindful and acting with a sense of awareness; and (4) behaving in ways that satisfy basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. In fact, we theorize that the first three of these aspects of eudaimonic living have their positive effects of psychological and physical wellness because they facilitate satisfaction of these basic, universal psychological needs. Studies indicate that people high in eudaimonic living tend to behave in more prosocial ways, thus benefiting the collective as well as themselves, and that conditions both within the family and in society more generally contribute toward strengthening versus diminishing the degree to which people live eudaimonic lives.     

Political support for self-determination,wealth, and national subjective well-being

The present paper explored the relation of wealth and support for self-determination to national subjective well-being (SWB). Support for self-determination was considered from both a political and cultural values standpoint. The results confirmed associations between wealth, support for self-determination, and well-being in a large sample of countries. Importantly, political and cultural value supports for self-determination remained significantly associated with national well-being (as measured by happiness reports and life expectancy) even after controlling for national differences in wealth.

Personality and values as predictors of medical specialty choice

Research rarely considers the combined influence of personality traits and values in predicting behavioral outcomes. We aimed to advance a germinal line of inquiry that addresses this gap by separately and simultaneously examining personality traits and physician work values to predict medical specialty choice. First-year medical students (125 women and 119 men) responded to measures of personality and physician work values. After graduation, participants' residency choices were identified. Results indicated that personality traits predict person- or technique-oriented medical specialty choice. Physician work values, whether used alone or in tandem with personality traits, however, did not significantly predict specialty choice. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Exposure to community violence and social support as predictors of anxiety and social and emotional behavior among African American children

We examined the effects of exposure to violence and social support on self-reported state and trait anxiety and parental rated problem behaviors among school-aged African-American children in low and high violence areas. Ninety-seven (97) fourth through sixth graders and their parents were interviewed about exposure to community violence, social support, and state and trait anxiety. Results indicate that trait anxiety was correlated positively with exposure to violence and negatively with social support. State anxiety was correlated negatively with family social support. Problem behaviors were correlated negatively with family support and income. Hierarchial multiple regression analyses indicated that children's reports of their exposure to community violence continued to explain significant variability in trait anxiety, and problem behavior after controlling for both income and social support measures. Social support from peers, family and teachers played differential roles in predicting problem behaviors among children from high and lower violence areas. These findings suggest that in planning intervention programs for children exposed to violence, greater attention to empowering parents to support their children, to fostering peer group support, and to bolstering teacher support may be useful, but attention to the underlying socio-political causes of violence exposure is essential.     

Holland's personality constructs as predictors of stability of choice

It was the purpose of this study to test Holland's assertion that stability of vocational choice can be predicted from: (a) congruence of personality with chosen career, (b) differentiation of personality, and (c) internal consistency of personality characteristics. The relationship of each of the three constructs to stability of choice of college major was studied among 167 university students. It was hypothesized that prediction could be improved by combining congruence, differentiation, and consistency in a multiple relationship. The relative importance of the three constructs was examined. Findings supported Holland's contention that congruence and consistency are positively related to stability. No significant relationship was found between differentiation and stability. When combined, all three constructs predict stability, but the efficiency of prediction is not improved by adding differentiation and/or consistency to congruence. As hypothesized, congruence was found to be the most important predictor, followed in importance by differentiation and consistency, respectively.     

Sex differences in risk sensitivity under positive and negative budgets and predictors of choice

The authors investigated sex differences in human risk sensitivity by using a computerized choice task with an energy budget analogue. In addition, they explored possible personality predictors of variance sensitivity. The authors modified the traditional energy budget model from those used in risk-sensitive foraging research with nonhuman animals for appropriate use with a human population. Participants chose between 2 computer icons, 1 yielding a fixed-point reward and the other offering variable points. Men were risk prone in the negative budget and risk averse in the positive budget. Women were risk averse in the negative budget. Personality was not predictive of risk-sensitive bias. Interpreting the results using an evolutionary model, the authors found support for a biological and environmental construct of risk-sensitive behavior.     

Age and physical fitness as predictors of serial choice responding: the influence of task demands and motor function

Findings from research examining the moderating influence of physical fitness on age-related declines in speeded cognitive tasks have been inconsistent. This may, in part, be due to a failure to take into account the varying demands placed upon individuals by different psychomotor tasks. Additionally, it is rare for studies to consider the motor function in relation to age and physical fitness. These factors were examined in a sample of employed men aged between 22 and 64 years. Multiple regression analyses identified statistically significant Age×Fitness interactions in respect to unusually slow latencies, or blocks, in choice responding at higher levels of task demand. Significant Age×Fitness interactions were also found in predictions of motor performance, although that variable did not account for all of the variance explained in psychomotor measures. It is concluded that Age×Fitness interactions are most likely in situations of high task demands and that limitations in attentional capacity may underlie those interactions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Client-level predictors of adherence to MST in community service settings

This study examined the association of youth and family characteristics with therapist fidelity to an evidence-based treatment provided in real world practice settings. Participants were 233 families that reported on the 66 therapists organized into 16 teams in nine organizations providing multisystemic therapy (MST). Therapist adherence ratings were lower for youths referred for both criminal offenses and substance abuse than for youths referred either for substance abuse or status offenses, and was negatively associated with pretreatment arrests and school suspensions. Adherence ratings were positively associated with educational disadvantage and caregiver-therapist ethnic match and marginally positively associated with economic disadvantage. The findings suggest directions for future research on the implementation of evidence-based treatments in community settings.     

Negative reactions to received spousal care: predictors and consequences of miscarried support.

This study focused on the negative reactions of older women with osteoarthritis to the receipt of instrumental support (i.e., physical assistance) from their husbands and the effects of such negative reactions on the women's psychological well-being and self-care. Applying a person-environment fit model, the authors predicted that women's negative reactions to spousal support would be determined by the fit between this support and the personal centrality (importance) of being functionally independent. Consistent with this prediction, women who received high levels of support from the husband and for whom being functionally independent was not highly central reacted less negatively to this support. More negative reactions to spousal support were related to greater concurrent depressive symptomatology and fewer self-care behaviors. In addition, negative reactions were predictive of the women's increased depressive symptomatology and decreased life satisfaction. Findings illustrate a useful theoretical approach to the examination of support from family caregivers.     

Expressed and inventoried vocational interests as predictors of college graduation and vocational choice

This is a follow-up study of 195 agricultural students originally tested when they entered college in 1970. Students whose Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) patterns were consistent with their stated choice of major were the congruent sample. Students whose SVIB patterns were inconsistent with their stated choices of major were the discrepant sample. A follow-up was made on graduation rates, eventual major, and job placement. Discrepant subjects changed major more often but graduated at the same rate as congruents. The SVIB did not seem to add anything to the student's expressed interests in predicting college continuation. There was a trend for congruent graduates to more frequently take jobs which matched their majors.     

Living with the abstract: realism and models

A natural way to think of models is as abstract entities. If theories employ models to represent the world, theories traffic in abstract entities much more widely than is often assumed. This kind of thought seems to create a problem for a scientific realist approach to theories. Scientific realists claim theories should be understood literally. Do they then imply (and are they committed to) the reality of abstract entities? Or are theories simply—and incurably—false (if there are no abstract entities)? Or has the very idea of literal understanding to be abandoned? Is then fictionalism towards scientific theories inevitable? This paper argues that scientific realism can happily co-exist with models qua abstracta.     

Teacher- and school-level predictors of teacher efficacy and burnout: identifying potential areas for support

Although several studies relate low teacher efficacy and high burnout to the quality of instruction and students' academic achievement, there has been limited research examining factors that predict teacher efficacy and burnout. The current study employed a longitudinal, multilevel modeling approach to examine the influence of teacher- and school-level factors on the development of both teacher efficacy and burnout. Data were collected 3 times across 2 academic years from 600 teachers at 31 elementary schools. The results indicated that both teacher efficacy and burnout increased over time. Teacher preparedness and perceptions of teacher affiliation and leadership were significantly associated with both the intercept and growth of teacher efficacy and burnout; however, school-level factors were generally unrelated to both outcomes. Implications for screenings and teacher-targeted interventions are discussed.     

Hope and self-determination of young adults in the workplace

This longitudinal field study tested positive reciprocal longitudinal interactions between components of hope theory and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in the work environment during 3 years of vocational training. The three annual questionnaire surveys of 414 trainees in young adulthood were analyzed with latent autoregressive cross-lagged models. The tested longitudinal models provided support for a positive reciprocal feedback process between hope and the satisfaction of the need for competency. The 1 year lagged effects between hope and the needs for autonomy and relatedness were not statistically significant, but synchronous relations did exist. The study suggested that perceived vocational competencies lead to increases in hope, while the trainees’ hope in turn also had positive effects on the development of perceived vocational competencies.