Diverse Pathways to Purpose for College Students With Disabilities

Abstract

The sense of purpose, which directs and motivates goal attainment, is associated with health and happiness as students make transitions from high school to college and work. Despite its importance for student well-being, little empirical work has addressed the development of purpose among students with disabilities. This article expands on a model of the relationship between purpose development, career aspirations, and disability identity in a sample of 59 college students with a variety of visible and invisible disabilities. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach to the analysis of extensive interviews, results present five pathways to purpose and the processes through which students’ disabilities contribute to their sense of purpose. Implications for practice and future research emerge from this rich source of student voices.

Keywords

career choice college major grounded theory purpose

Social psychologists have argued that the development of an interrelated system of values and commitments that shape action, which they encapsulate in the idea of “purpose,” provides direction, stability, and motivation in life and is associated with health, happiness, and well-being (e.g., Burrow, O’Dell, & Hill, 2010; Erikson, 1982). This literature has also shown the relationship between purpose and identity development in later adolescence and early adulthood (e.g., Hill, Sumner, & Burrow, 2014; Malin, Reilly, Quinn, & Moran, 2013). However, almost no empirical work has focused on purpose development among adolescents and young adults with disabilities (Vaccaro, Kimball, Newman, Moore, & Troiano, 2018). Our goal is to explore how disabilities contribute to the exploration and realization of a sense of purpose.

Theoretical Ideas About Purpose

Scholars have theorized that a sense of purpose develops and transforms over time. Erikson (1982) viewed purpose as a prime adaptive ego quality of early school age (roughly ages 4–6). At this stage, purpose is a coping resource that supports directed action-oriented problem solving. The sense of purpose transforms the will of toddlerhood toward some goal-oriented activity (e.g., suggesting an activity such as going to the park or playing a board game). As cognitive skills, social awareness, and capacity for empathy improve, a person’s sense of purpose expands to account for the impact of goals on others and to provide direction for the future. This typically occurs in adolescence as part of a growing awareness of the importance of family, friends, and community to one’s own life (Damon, Menon, & Bronk, 2003). In the transition into later adolescence and early adulthood, the sense of purpose may become more evident, finding expression in specific actions, or changing in light of new opportunities or new understandings about the realities and/or barriers associated with achieving one’s goals (Malin et al., 2013).

Although the concepts of purpose and meaning are sometimes used interchangeably, purpose extends beyond meaning’s emphasis on intrapsychic value structures such as morality, spirituality, and ideology to include goal-oriented, future-oriented actions that persist over time (Damon et al., 2003). In short, “Purpose is a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond-the-self” (Damon et al., 2003, p. 121). Purpose is deeply connected to a person’s self-identity and sense of agency. It also requires the maintenance of external commitments, which typically entails extended social and moral engagements. The net effect is that purpose connects to a person’s broader prosocial dispositions and is often manifest in actions intended to make a positive difference in the world beyond the self (Malin, Tirri, & Liauw, 2015). These larger goals may be difficult to achieve and must be broken down into a series of discrete steps.

Empirical Studies About Purpose Development

Purpose development is not a straightforward or uniform process. A person’s self-identity exerts a particularly powerful influence (Sumner, Burrow, & Hill, 2015). However, purpose development is also shaped by (a) personality traits such as extraversion and openness to experiences; (b) life transitions such as the shift from high school to college and from school to work; (c) identity development processes like exploration and changing commitments; (d) social supports and influences including relationships with parents, peers, and mentors; and (e) connection to community (Hill, Edmonds, Peterson, Luyckx, & Andrews, 2016; Malin et al., 2013). It can also be inhibited or even foreclosed entirely due to environmental circumstances that prevent the development of a sense of hopefulness (Burrow et al., 2010). Studies have shown that a person’s commitment to their own identity and to social change influences purpose development (cf. Malin et al., 2015; Sumner et al., 2015).

Both identity and purpose development often occur during college. During this time, novel experiences—both new educational experiences and new social relationships—challenge previously stable self-understandings (Hill et al., 2014). However, students vary markedly in their openness to new experiences and information—leading those who study development to distinguish between types of exploration (Luyckx et al., 2008). Exploration in breadth involves engaging in different roles and relationships, while exploration in depth involves reexamining earlier commitments to assess their fit with current goals and values. Both exploration in breath and in depth eventually lead to new commitments, whereas ruminative exploration, which is associated with anxiety and emotional distress, does not. As a result, students can vary markedly in the stability of their sense of purpose during and after college.

Disability and the College Transition

Many students with disabilities begin to think about their transition to college as part of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process for secondary students (Mazzotti, Test, & Mustian, 2014). Transition planning typically begins when students are 14 years and continue through high school completion. This process allows students, in concert with their parents and school professionals, to identify postsecondary goals and the resources needed to achieve them. While many goals focus on employment and independent living outcomes, roughly 60% of students with disabilities intend to continue their educations after high school and 19% hope to attend a 4-year college (Cameto, Levine, & Wagner, 2004; Newman et al., 2011).

Self-determination—a theoretical construct that represents a person’s capacity to engage in independent, goal-directed, and self-motivated behavior—is strongly linked with postsecondary success for students with disabilities (e.g., Anctil, Ishikawa, & Tao Scott, 2008; Getzel & Thoma, 2008). Students with higher self-determination have better academic and employment outcomes as well as a greater possibility of achieving meaningful personal goals (Field, Sarver, & Shaw, 2003). Programs designed to promote self-determination enhance student capacity for goal setting, decision making, self-advocacy, and persistence in college (Morningstar, Lombardi, Fowler, & Test, 2017; Parker & Boutelle, 2009). Notably, although almost no studies have explored purpose in college students with disabilities (Vaccaro et al., 2018), self-determination’s emphasis on the autonomous and intentional pursuit of goals echoes much of the available literature on purpose development (cf. Getzel & Thoma, 2008; Hill et al., 2014). This article examines how college students with disabilities articulated their sense of purpose, career aspirations, and plans to reach their goals.

Method

We used constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006/2014) to explore semistructured interviews with 59 students with a wide range of visible and invisible disabilities. Interviews ranged from 60 to 120 min. All interviews were transcribed professionally. We then used constant comparative analysis to generate open, axial, and selective codes. We used open codes to categorize and compare ideas across participant accounts; axial codes to regroup open codes and make theoretical connections; and selective codes to refine a series of theoretical propositions. Based on an emergent theory of purpose formation (Vaccaro et al., 2018), we further examined the different ways participants expressed their senses of purpose. To do so, one research team member categorized all transcripts and provided definitions for proposed groupings. Other members of the research team then categorized a random subset of the transcripts to check for interrater reliability. We repeated this process until we achieved an interrater reliability of 80% with disagreement coming only from adjacent categories.

Participants

Our study utilized a theoretic sampling frame to recruit a diverse pool of students with disabilities from four colleges in the Northeastern United States. In a theoretic sample, researchers recruit participants because they help to elaborate a key aspect of the grounded model being developed. We varied institutional context, disability type, major, and other social identities in an attempt to understand their influence on the construction of purpose for students with disabilities. The average participant age was 22 years. Our sample included students with a specific learning disability, 23 (39%); attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 16 (27%); mental health diagnosis, 14 (24%); physical disability, 9 (15%); autism spectrum disorders, 3 (5%); deafness, 2 (3%); blindness, 2 (3%); a traumatic brain injury, 2 (3%); or “other” health impairment, 4 (7%). Because 42% of our sample self-identified as having more than one disability, these percentages do not add to 100%. Participants included 12 people who self-identified as cisgender men (20%); 45, as cisgender women (76%); and two, as transgender or genderqueer (4%). Participant reporting of race include Black, 1 (2%); Latinx, 2 (3%); Asian, 2 (3%); White/Caucasian, 49 (83%); and multiracial, 5 (8%). Although six people (10%) did not respond to the question, participant reported sexual orientations included heterosexual, 45 (76%); lesbian, 3 (5%); bisexual (2%); queer, 2 (3%); and questioning, 2 (3%). Students are referred to by pseudonyms which they suggested in the interviews.

Trustworthiness and Credibility

We used several techniques to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of our findings. First, we used analytic triangulation, wherein at least two researchers independently coded each transcript, to enhance trustworthiness. We then used the process outlined above to ensure interrater reliability in the construction of categories reported in this article. Second, we used an intentional discrepant case analysis process, in addition to the reanalysis required in constant comparative analysis, to challenge our own conclusions. Third, we addressed our relational competence by interrogating our own positionalities and subjectivities. As a research team, we self-identified as people with and without disabilities whose own purpose trajectories were shaped by diverse ability, racial, gender, sexual, and social class identities. We engaged in monthly discussions about if, and how, these perspectives and identities shaped our study process and products. As scholars, educators, and practitioners who have taught and studied disability and supported individual students via direct services and classroom interactions, we intentionally adopted a strength-based (versus a deficit) lens in our research. Throughout the process, we used expert peer reviews to check the credibility of our emergent themes and to challenge us when our subjectivities and/or hidden biases may have shaded study conclusions.

Findings

Findings are organized in two sections: first, the five ways our participants expressed their sense of purpose; and second, the influence of disability on pathways to purpose. Figure 1 offers a visual integration of these two sections. Instead of selecting short quotes from many participants as evidence of findings, we opted to describe and analyze two sample cases to exemplify each purpose category.

Figure 1.

Diverse pathways to purpose.

Five Ways Participants Express Their Sense of Purpose

No clear sense of purpose

When asked how they saw themselves in the future, some students could not articulate a clear vision. Their goals were uncertain—“I’m trying to figure out what I’m gonna do”—or vague—“not to be stressed out” or “to pay for my life.” Some students in this group had declared majors, but the decision did not appear connected to a personally meaningful goal. Although some participants had short-term goals, these were often directed by others rather than by internalized commitments.

River

In our interview, River (who uses “them” as a pronoun) expressed difficulty in responding to a question about longer-term goals and future plans. River stated,

I’ve always had difficulty with that question. I never know where I’m going. I hope I will . . . Like, I want to . . . not be terrified that I’m running out of time constantly. Or that I’m disappointing people. All three of my siblings . . . they’ve all had romantic relationships. I never have. And they all have cars, they’ve all had jobs. I’ve never been able to do those things. I don’t necessarily want to, but sometimes I feel, like someday it would be nice to connect to others on deeper levels or to be able to leave if I felt like it or be able to have . . . a normal income so I’m not embarrassed—so, that I can tell people what I do and not hide it all the time.

River, who was first diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome in third grade (but later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder) expressed clear discomfort with the sort of sustained consideration of the future that purpose commitment demands (Damon et al., 2003). Instead, River described their discomfort with people as keeping them from holding a regular job, which River goes on to explain means that: “I can’t make progress in life,” and “I’ve lived in chaos for twenty years.” Despite confronting these challenges, River attended college and majored in art. They also enjoy creative work such as painting, drawing comic strips, and writing. However, River’s disability causes a sense of separation from the social world and disrupts the ability to conceptualize a long-term sense of purpose.

Lenina

When discussing career goals, Lenina described having given up on her prior aspirations and having not yet realized a clear sense of purpose:

It’s probably changed a lot. I wanted to do business because that’s what my father had done and . . . I want to have a good job and travel a lot. Until recently I thought I was going to grad school to do Ph.D. work and stuff. But, now that I’m not, I’m sort of glad; I’ve been feeling a little worn out and I just don’t want to be stressed. The company [that my husband works for] . . . need[s] someone to get marketing to get new clients. It’s commissioned so right now I’m doing it as a part time job to do that. But I can do that [full time or long term] . . . I’m sort of moving on. I think I really wanted to go to school for so long, but I was sick and I just couldn’t finish. And now I’m thinking it’s best I move on to something else in my life that I want—something where it’s not taking up so much of my time, where I can have free time to myself and stuff.

Lenina, who has ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, and depression, connected this decision to her disability status. As a result of her anxiety and depression, Lenina sometimes struggled to go to college and temporarily dropped out. Nonetheless, she had a passion and aptitude for languages—having learned 11 and working on several more. Her learning disabilities sometimes interfered with this passion; for example, she struggled with the Cyrillic alphabet used in Russian:

I don’t know how to phonetically read a word out. Like, I literally can’t and that’s what we’ve been working on. I just know that disability . . . I just guess what it’s supposed to sound like based on like if it looks like another word. It’s quite problematic because I can’t actually like read aloud stuff because I’ll just say the wrong word or whatever.

Lenina’s decisions to stop learning Russian and not to pursue a doctoral degree reflect a broader disengagement from her goals. While Lenina loves to travel and is passionate about exploring other cultures, her description of her future plans focuses on others (e.g., parents, husband).

Imagining and exploring a sense of purpose

Students in this category—imagining and exploring—described their sense of purpose as a work in progress. Most participants in this group were able to trace a path from childhood, imagining possible careers, to their current passions. In the college environment, opportunities for internships, community service, fieldwork, and extracurricular activities provided settings for further purpose exploration—as did less predictable experiences like interactions with skilled teachers or caring physicians. As participants reflect on how these ideas changed over time, they talk about this process of imagination and exploration with delight. While participants in this category have not yet figured out how to prioritize or combine multiple goals, they are actively conceptualizing a meaningful future, considering multiple possible realities, and describing some of the steps necessary for realizing them. However, they do not frame their goals or aspirations in terms of making an impact on the lives of others, helping others, or contributing to the betterment of their community—even when pursuing a human services field.

Penelope

A biology major with minors in forensics and Japanese, Penelope described herself as “doing a lot better than I thought I would” in college. Consistent with her varied interests, Penelope described two viable but not entirely integrated career goals: “I would either be working maybe for either something like crime scene investigation or trace or blood spatter analysis . . . Or another option was doing the JET program to go teach English in Japan.”

Penelope was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) near the end of middle school. Prior to that, she had been seeing a therapist for depression. Penelope described herself as a perfectionistic as a result of her OCD: “When I write papers and stuff, I have to really reread it and then make sure I’m explaining something right . . . I tend to over-focus on it, just to make sure that I’ll get a good grade on it . . . it just makes things take a longer time than they should.” Talking about her career aspirations, Penelope noted that her OCD impacted her decisions: “I feel like if I didn’t have the OCD, I probably would have gone to art school. But it just made it impossible, because I never would have been able to finish anything.” In her art classes, she found that, if her work was not “perfect,” she would keep changing it, which she found increasingly stressful and often prevented her from finishing her artwork. In contrast, she viewed forensics as a good fit because she is good at noticing details. At the moment, however, Penelope is not yet fully committed to this goal in the context of a broader sense of purpose that includes language learning, travel to Japan, and having a family.

Peter

Peter explains that he was “caught late” with dyslexia, in the fifth grade. At that point, he could not read or write. But he attended a school designed to teach students with dyslexia and he caught up quickly. Discovering that he had dyslexia was a positive experience for Peter; it changed his view of himself from someone who was stupid to someone who could learn in a different way. “I was pumped. So I was really psyched to hear that and I like I naturally wanted to learn more.” In high school, he was a student advocate who gave lectures about dyslexia at colleges for students planning to go into special education. As for career aspirations, Peter described a long-running interest in joining the military as well as having taken steps toward that goal.

[In] high school . . . I joined a junior military group called the Naval Sea Cadet Core . . . for 2 years . . . I was really leaning towards joining the Navy but . . . coming to college . . . I can pursue my career in the military afterwards.

Once in college, Peter pursued a degree in public health because

I actually wanted to do kinesiology . . . Unfortunately I’m not that great at math anymore, at least not calculus . . . But I got a D in calculus which is one of the requirements to get into kinesiology. . . . So I retook it, studied really hard, took it with a better teacher, focused a lot that semester on just calculus and then ended up getting a C- instead of a D+. So it was an improvement but not the improvement I needed and plus like I was already behind on classes for it. So, I would have had to tack on another year [in order to complete the degree] . . . I like school but I don’t like it that much.

Peter thought about dropping out of college but chose not to do so because “leaving college with debt and no degree would be pretty bad.” Instead, he chose to get a degree in public health due to its similarity to kinesiology. While changing majors, Peter also served as a Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet, but by the time of his interview, he had nearly decided to leave the program (and would shortly thereafter)—noting,

The army is not really where I want to go after [college] so I haven’t made the decision . . . But I’m pretty much leaning towards becoming a civilian, which means I’d have to drop being a cadet after this semester.

As a result, Peter found himself uncertain of future career plans or his broader sense of purpose.

Imagining and exploring a sense of purpose beyond the self

Like those in the prior group, participants who expressed their sense of purpose in this way were still imagining and exploring possible futures. Nor had their sense of purpose yet taken shape into a specific set of goals or meaningful commitments. However, participants in this group expressed interest in helping others, contributing to society, or making “a difference” in the future. Many participants reported that mentors or community engagement shaped their sense of purpose.

Gertrude

When asked about her major, Gertrude stated, “I just recently declared my major as communication disorders so that’s exciting. I had no idea what I wanted for a long time so I’m narrowing it.” She went on to explain that she had “always known that I wanted to work with kids, but I didn’t really necessarily want to be a teacher.” Her aunt, a speech pathologist, advised her that a communications disorders major could help her realize both these goals. Although Gertrude’s clear desire to help others and the selection of a related major might hint at a realized sense of purpose, she expressed uncertainty about how the future would unfold: “I’m sometimes still confused ’cause I know I’m a Com Dis major now, but I’m still like: ‘Oh, maybe I don’t wanna do this.’ . . . I have those days.” Later, Gertrude clarified that her uncertainty stemmed from the variety of ways she could use a communications disorders major and whether she would need to pursue a graduate degree to do so. Nonetheless, she has taken exploratory steps toward purpose commitment in this area and has begun to imagine her future through the lens of this career. In describing her nonverbal learning disability, Gertrude noted that she had been sent to a reading and speech specialist as a child; being seen as different had both motivated her to work hard and sometimes embarrassed her; and she hoped her own experiences could be useful in helping others.

So I knew that I wanted to work with kids and as I was saying the teaching I didn’t know if I wanted to be a teacher so I was trying to think of like other things that I could be with kids . . . I did have like a learning disability. I knew I thought that it would be cool to be in a field like that where you’re like working with other kids who have a type of disability and being able to help them.

Athena

When asked why she had chosen to major in sociology, Athena said that she had originally wanted to be a fashion designer, but after “reflect[ing] a lot on how I want to help others,” she had “decided to go into a helping field.” While Athena did not yet have a fully realized, purpose-driven plan for the future, she had established a core goal—“feeling inspired by my career”—and begun thinking through what it would take to realize that goal—“I wouldn’t mind working on another degree either.” Athena, who has muscular dystrophy, also had a realistic understanding of the challenges that she faced in pursuing this goal: “I have the daily struggles of a college student, but I also have to work harder.”

This view is repeated in many other students’ narratives. The desire to succeed in the student role means giving more time, effort, and planning to accomplish tasks that other students appear to complete more easily. When asked about what her disability means to her, she responds, “It doesn’t define me, but when people look at me it defines me for them.” However, her disability has influenced her exploration of purpose. She said,

I think that for someone with a disability, it will always be taken into account. To have a bright future, you have to think about how your disability will impact the field. I chose sociology because it’s around me all the time. It’s broad and at the end of the day, I feel like I can do what I want.

Desires to be independent and self-sufficient are central to Athena’s goals. Through the study of sociology, she hopes to discover a path to helping others. However, the exact expression of this goal and how it will result in a satisfactory level of self-sufficiency is not yet clear.

Arriving at an instrumental sense of purpose

The final two categories include students who have arrived at a sense of purpose. As have other researchers (Damon et al., 2003), we distinguish between an instrumental or internally focused sense of purpose and a sense of purpose beyond the self. The former suggests the conceptualization of a clear goal that the person views as meaningful and worthwhile, but one that has a more instrumental focus rather than a focus on contributing to the well-being of others or enhancing the community. Participants who had arrived at an instrumental sense of purpose had integrated their purpose with other important aspects of their self-identity and identified strategies for moving toward their goals. They may have been unsure about all the steps needed, but they saw themselves as progressing toward a future and sometimes as defying expectations related to their disability.

Layla

Pursuing a career as a fashion historian, Layla described having arrived at this decision after considering how the debilitating migraines she experiences would interfere with a career as a fashion designer. She also noted how that led her to a clear sense of purpose:

The industry . . . it’s structured to be madness . . . If you’re completely burnt out and broken, then who cares? We’ve got 12 more fresh interns that are unpaid to run our company. You know, most companies in fashion, they actually have twice as many unpaid interns as paid employees? Yeah, I decided I don’t want to play with that system. It wasn’t worth it for what they ask you to put in . . . I didn’t want it to be my entire life.

Layla’s redefinition of her future goals is thoughtful and grounded in her passions. She has taken concrete steps in the pursuit of her newfound sense of purpose. For example, she took a job at an academic library and did a project with a professor cataloging historic garments. Finding this work satisfied her passion, she began researching graduate programs in fashion history. Following this process, Layla developed a clear sense of purpose that included plans to make her dreams a reality. Her disability influenced, but did not constrain her pursuit of her interests.

Fanny

In her description of her earliest career aspirations, Fanny noted,

I did not want to do anything that was considered a stereotype. So many people were like “I want to be a firefighter,” “I want to be a cop” and I’m like, “I want to be an astronaut” because no one said that yet. “I’m going to do that. Awesome, and none of you get to do it.”

She then described an early interest in paleontology, which led her to pursue archeology in college. However, early steps toward the realization of this career goal dissuaded her: “My second year of college, then I actually went on an archaeological dig, and I’m like, ‘This isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.’” Having realized she no longer wished to be an astronaut, paleontologist, or archeologist, Fanny returned to prior experiences and interest in exploring other cultures:

I actually got to see firsthand what an Egyptian family is like . . . not many people . . . are actually wealthy . . . they still had their family, which was like, okay, I have my family . . . you can learn a lot from just any culture.

Based on this experience, Fanny pursued a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and described her future in clear, realistic terms:

I haven’t quite 100 percent decided where I want to go. By the time I graduate from here, I will have proficiency in Arabic. I absolutely will and I’m going to work over the summer just to make sure I don’t lose it . . . Knowing Arabic, I have a skill that not a lot of people have and a skill that considering the time period and what’s going on in the Middle East, is a skill that a lot of people want, and by a lot of people, I mean the government and the military . . . so it’s almost going to be an argument over who gets you, so it makes me feel special.

Framing her studies around the “key scale” of Arabic, Fanny established a clear purpose—even if her precise path remained unclear. She contextualized that purpose within an understanding of her disability, dyslexia. Fanny noted the need to work harder than others and also that her experiences with dyslexia had given her a different point of view, which contributes to her ability to appreciate other cultures. Moreover, it motivated her to pursue an “unconventional” path. The desire for an unconventional path—coupled with her noting that knowing Arabic “makes me feel special”—demonstrates that Fanny’s sense of purpose is directed inward.

Arriving at a sense of purpose beyond the self

A sense of purpose beyond the self suggests goals that are meaningful both at a personal level and also in terms of the public good (Damon et al., 2003). This sense of purpose is most often directly linked to a career goal. For example, one participant hoped to earn a medical degree and join Doctors Without Borders. However, the betterment of others was not always linked to participants’ career goals. For example, Yolanda, an engineering major, wrote a blog describing her experiences with autism and answering parents’ questions about how to support autistic children. All students in this category linked their sense of purpose to serving and/or supporting others—whether it was via a career, volunteerism, hobbies, or other means.

Ida

In our interview, Ida’s sense of purpose emerged immediately. Having been asked by her interviewer to “tell me a little bit about yourself,” Ida stated,

I’m working in non-traditional education settings such as zoos, museums, being with camp directors, things like that because I’ve done that in various forms since I was 12 years old . . . I found when I was little my passion was teaching kids what I wanted to be taught. Like I was taught in these energetic ways. I was taught hands on. I was taught using the environment around me, and I wanted kids to see the same passion and fire that I had for it . . . just seeing the amazement in their eyes, of “How can this all be possible?”

As an education major, Ida had participated in field placements and realized that “these kids, they seem to get more bored. That’s why they don’t do as well.” In response, she developed her passion for nontraditional education program where “it’s hands on and they’re doing it themselves.”

Ida connected this insight to her own disability status, which she described as a “learning disability classified on the autism spectrum.” She stated,

being a non-traditional learner myself, I know the value of not confining kids to one way . . . I want to give kids the opportunity they may not have inside the classroom to continue that non-traditional learning . . . outside of the classroom.

Expanding on how her disability shapes the way she learns and her sense of purpose, Ida explained that some teachers had very low expectations for her, but others helped her excel. She said,

I wish there was more of that, people . . . who are willing to go that extra mile to let these kids see they can succeed if they just have the right . . . boundaries or setup . . . people that . . . [won’t] overlook them.

Ida struggled with receiving appropriate accommodations in college. Due to low scores in biology and on the praxis exams, Ida was denied admission to the teacher education program. These struggles helped confirm her interest in nontraditional, outside of the classroom, teaching.

Hazel

Hazel’s sense of purpose also emerged early in the interview. She wanted to have “an impact on the environmental movement.” When asked to elaborate, she shared, “Advocating for new types of energy or current types of energy that become implemented. So I make a stride towards the right direction . . . being that someone look[ed] up to [by] young environmentalists.”

Hazel described several concrete steps she had taken to make this goal a reality including her major (environmental science) and field experiences (working for Oxfam and Sierra Club). She knew she wanted a job where she would be outside frequently. Hazel also framed this interest in terms of her own life history: “My parents are very green, so me eventually going into environment science was pretty much a given . . . My dad drives a fully electric Nissan Leaf, and we charge it with the solar panels on our roof.”

When asked to talk about how her disabilities (attention-deficit disorder [ADD] and generalized anxiety disorder) influenced her sense of purpose, Hazel reflected that her disabilities may have indirectly shaped her path toward purpose by discouraging her from pursuing some options. When she was very young, she wanted to be a veterinarian, but when she thought about having to see blood or put animals down, she realized the job was not a good fit. She thought about being a doctor but found the thought of blood and bodily fluids too anxiety provoking. As she imagined other possible careers—including being a lawyer, a geneticist, or an astronomer, anxieties would come flooding in—she faced considerable anxiety over financial and temporal costs as well as the types of jobs she might get in these areas. However, when she hit upon environmental science, she felt, “This makes sense. I’m an innovative thinker . . . I can bring new ideas to the table.”

How Disabilities Shape the Sense of Purpose: Pathways of Influence

The second aspect of our inquiry was to try to understand what part students’ disabilities played in shaping their status. Five pathways of influence were identified.

Disability may shape the content of purpose. Having had experiences with reading and speech specialists as a child, and getting to know about her aunt’s work as a speech therapist, Gertrude is now focusing on communication disorders as her major and a career working with children with speech or learning disabilities. Like Gertrude, some students identified a path toward purpose that involved working with others who face the same (or similar) challenges as a result of their disability. Students spoke of their disability as providing insight into ways of making a difference for others. For some students (e.g., Ida’s narrative), disability resulted in experiences of marginalization or stigmatization that added to their motivation. For many students, their disability shaped a path toward purpose beyond the self, especially when it was accompanied by engagement with activism or community service.

Disability may influence a “weeding out” and “selecting” process. As students engage in imagining and exploring alternatives, they discover that their disability makes some activities, career demands, or social experiences more difficult and others more comfortable. Penelope describes how her OCD made art school an impossible choice. Students identified factors including the amount of reading or writing, expectations for social interaction, the physical strains, and the noise level of the environment as considerations that make some major and career choices less attractive. Having experienced a difficult internship, Layla realized that a life in the fashion industry was incompatible with her vulnerability to severe migraines. Some students, like Peter and Hazel, recognize that their disability contributes to their strength in fields such as math, spatial relations, or creative visualization. As they experience internships, volunteer activities, and work experiences, students become sensitized to situations where their disability is more or less salient as an advantage or a disadvantage.

Disability may influence a motivation to work harder as students strive to excel. Many students, like Penelope and Athena, mentioned the impact of their disability on their determination, desire to do well, and commitment to achieve. As Maisie says, she never wants people to say “she is not doing well in this and I think that it’s because she’s deaf.” Students learn strategies that contribute to their ability to complete assignments, manage their time, and take advantage of resources. As such, experiences coping with their disability are linked to their persistence. Regardless of the content of their sense of purpose, they viewed disability as a positive contributor to the capacity to make progress toward goal achievement.

Disability may influence a desire to defy expectations and prove others wrong. Beyond working hard and striving to excel, some students, like Fanny, are inspired to defy expectations or stereotypes about what careers were appropriate for people with particular disabilities. Given the negative connotations associated with disability, some students voice an insistence that their disability will not prevent them from charting unconventional or challenging career and life paths. They talk about people who may have underestimated their abilities or raised questions about the direction they are headed. In the face of deficit stereotypes, these students insisted on following unique, meaningful pathways toward purpose.

Disability may disrupt the ability to conceptualize or commit to a sense of purpose. In some instances, as seen with River and Lenina, disability can undermine the pathway to purpose. Disruptions in self-understanding and self-confidence, overwhelming feelings of anxiety or depression, constant worries about financial supports, or changing legal and medical resources are factors that can disturb students’ ability to visualize and commit to long-term goals. Legal or bureaucratic barriers may make a goal seem unattainable, and the cognitive, emotional, or physical aspects of a disability can pose fresh obstacles in college or workplace environments.

Discussion

Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we identified a typology of participants’ progress toward achieving a sense of purpose and analyzed how students’ disabilities figured in to their approach to goal attainment (see Figure 1). Our findings are meaningful for the study of both purpose and disability in higher education. They align with other observations about college student development, suggesting that the sense of purpose can serve as a valuable asset which enhances persistence and that the pathway to purpose can be supported by encounters with university faculty and staff as well as through field experiences, internships, and community service (Bronk, 2011). However, our work also provides some unexpected findings about the pathways to purpose among students with disabilities.

We identified five positions or statuses regarding the sense of purpose: (a) no clear sense of purpose; (b) imagining and exploring a sense of purpose; (c) imagining and exploring a sense of purpose beyond the self; (d) arriving at an instrumental sense of purpose; and (d) arriving at a sense of purpose beyond the self (see Figure 1). Students in Group 1 were unsure about their direction. Students in the second and third groups were exploring many different possible futures. They were investigating alternatives, practical considerations, and self-insight to sort out directions that might lead to attainable goals. What distinguished Groups 2 and 3 was the absence (Group 2) or presence (Group 3) of other-directed values and hopes. Students in the fourth group had a clear sense of direction, often associated with a desire for recognition, achievement, or an instrumental objective like having a certain kind of lifestyle. This sense of purpose was often but not always associated with career goals. For students in the fifth group, the sense of purpose was tied to a desire to make a difference for others. They had both clarity in their goals and a vision of the self as contributing to the well-being of specific groups of people, communities, or subject areas where their expertise might improve knowledge.

This typology highlights a process of exploration and goal clarification that is taking place during the college years. One implication is the distinction between a goal-centered focus, which is central in the transition planning literature and in the definition of self-determination (Mazzotti et al., 2014), and a process focus which is prominent in our students’ narratives. Disabilities can inspire purpose, particularly purpose beyond the self. They can also serve as a motivation to defy stereotypes or challenge deficit expectations regarding appropriate careers, goals, and life plans for people with disabilities.

For our participants, disability identity could function as both a positive inspiration, motivating progress toward purpose through determination and persistence, and as a burden, creating self-doubt even within the same student. Students with the same diagnosed disability differed in how they made meaning of their disability, its salience, and how it shaped their pathway to purpose. This underscores the need for a person-centered approach to advising students with disabilities to understand how their values and goals intersect with their strengths and limitations. It also speaks to the importance of cultivating both purpose and persistence. Students with disabilities described many ways that persistence and self-determination were interconnected. This finding aligns with prior research highlighting the centrality of self-determination to the success of students with disabilities (Getzel & Thoma, 2008). A central focus of self-determination skill training is setting and working toward self-selected goals, advocating for help in achieving those goals, and monitoring one’s progress toward achieving them. Often, what is omitted are the factors that sustain determination in the face of failures, social stigmas, or under estimations by teachers and/or advisors. The sense of purpose in life is one such factor, supporting motivation to accomplish goals that are personally meaningful and valued.

Implications for Practice

The substantial differences between high school and college in structure, demands for self-regulation and time management, and personal autonomy may present students with both a multitude of options to explore purpose (e.g., courses, internships, clubs) and unexpected hurdles for pursuing pathways to purpose (e.g., internship conditions, rigorous gateway courses, grade point average requirements). These difficulties may introduce new doubts about ability or the feasibility of achieving desired goals (Field et al., 2003). Students who have not been actively involved in transition planning may be at particular disadvantage in the college environment. As such, students with disabilities need opportunities to set goals and make decisions that reflect their ability to adapt to new circumstances. By incorporating a focus on the sense of purpose, transition planning would include encouragement to reflect on the personal value and meaning of one’s goals, thereby strengthening motivation and persistence that will help students endure in the face of new obstacles in the college setting.

Upon entrance into higher education, the burden of requesting and receiving accommodations shifts from the school to the student (Anctil et al., 2008). Many students who received accommodations in high school do not request them in college (Newman & Madaus, 2015). Requesting accommodations can be embarrassing, and in some ways, it can be perceived as a sign of dependence at a time when students are seeking new levels of autonomy and control over their lives. Students need to be advised about the range of accommodations available, the process for requesting them, and the connection between receiving accommodations and being able to achieve meaningful goals. Asking for and receiving appropriate accommodations is not a substitute for the realization of a sense of purpose. However, without these resources, students may be deterred from pursuing meaningful goals. For instance, Layla felt she could not work in fashion design due to her disability. She came to this conclusion without first conferring with disability services about possible internship accommodations. Having a sense of purpose may embolden students to request accommodations in the new environment. Students who believe in the value and meaning of their goals may be more likely to assert themselves in the face of faculty resistance or institutional obstacles.

Early discussions about purpose can benefit all students. Encouraging conversation and reflection about life goals can enhance the health, life satisfaction, identity development, and decision-making abilities of college students (Bronk, 2011; Damon et al., 2003). Yet we know little about how faculty and staff involve students with disabilities in conversations about meaning, purpose, and life goals. Initiatives are emerging that foster ties between students with disabilities and individual faculty members. For example, Ball State University has a program where students with disabilities can choose to be paired with faculty mentors who talk about academic majors, possible careers, and opportunities for extracurricular activities that may support the exploration of purpose (Scott, Markle, Wessel, & Desmond, 2016).

Finally, current teacher preparation and professional service preparation programs lack an emphasis on the integration of evidence-based practices in transition planning (Mazzotti & Plotner, 2016; Plotner, Mazzotti, Rose, & Carlson-Britting, 2016). Initiatives are needed that better prepare faculty and staff to support students with disabilities to consider the “big picture” as they identify goals and strategies, and encourage them to link their strengths to their potential for making an impact on the larger community. These conversations can occur in classroom settings, residence halls, workshops, and as “TED Talks” by students who have found their purpose. Many participants were student advocates or community volunteers before coming to college; they faced important personal and social challenges and solved complex bureaucratic dilemmas. Campuses can do more to involve students with disabilities as advocates and educators, not only about their disability, but about imagining, exploring, and achieving purpose beyond the self.

Limitations and Implications for Future Research

Despite efforts to enhance trustworthiness, our work has several design limitations. First, our sample is comprised predominantly of women (76%). National studies find that 2/3 of youth with disabilities are boys. Although females outnumber males by almost 27% in postsecondary degree granting institutions, roughly the same percentage of men and women students (11%) report having a disability (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2016). Research on the sense of purpose in life has not directly examined gender differences. However, studies of moral motivation find that high school girls are more civically involved and have stronger intentions to become civically involved in the future than boys, and that girls are more likely to be motivated by concerns for helping others whereas boys are more likely to be motivated by abstract values of equity and justice (Malin et al., 2015). Further research would help clarify the intersection of gender and disability as influences on the expression of a sense of purpose.

Second, our study aggregated diverse disability types, which is both a strength and weakness of our design. Evidence suggests that students with visual and hearing impairments are more likely to enroll in 4-year postsecondary institutions than students with other disabilities (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2016). Future research should address the role specific disabilities play in purpose development.

Third, participants were attending four different colleges. We did not disaggregate pathways to purpose by college setting in this article. However, given the important role of environments in fostering self-determination and supporting universal design practices (Field et al., 2003), future research should analyze campus differences (e.g., opportunities to explore alternatives; or to encounter role models who convey their sense of purpose). Fourth, the concept of pathways to purpose suggests a dynamic process in which a developing person encounters changing settings and circumstances. Our study suggests possible directions for change in the sense of purpose, but cannot directly describe developmental trajectories. Longitudinal research is needed to address the question of whether the typologies we have identified transform in any kind of predictable sequence as students discover how their goals can be achieved in the world outside of college.

Conclusion

A sense of purpose in life is associated with many positive outcomes including hopefulness, determination, physical and mental health, academic achievement, and life satisfaction. The college years are an especially important time for students to imagine and explore the links between their personal values, social and community ties, and meaningful goals that can become synthesized into a sense of purpose. Yet little attention has been given to the processes that shape sense of purpose among college students with disabilities. Our findings provide insight into the way students with disabilities discover and express their sense of purpose. Given the challenges they face as well as the encouragement and support they have received, students with disabilities bring unique perspectives about how they have constructed their visions of a meaningful future. Our findings support the need to incorporate opportunities for exploration and reflection about the sense of purpose in transition planning as well as in postsecondary environments.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: University of Rhode Island Project Completion Grant and NASPA Region I Small Grant.

ORCID iD

Barbara M. Newman

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