Differences in youth and parent postsecondary expectations for youth with disabilities

1. Introduction

Research has consistently revealed that young adults with disabilities experience poorer outcomes after graduating from high school than their peers without disabilities. In fact, Newman et al. (2011) report that, up to eight years after leaving high school, youth with disabilities were less likely than their typically-developing peers to live independently (45% vs. 59%), enroll in any type of postsecondary education program (60% vs. 67%), or complete a postsecondary program (41% vs. 52%). Individuals with disabilities also made less money than their peers on average ($10.40 per hour vs. $11.40 per hour) and were less likely to have a checking account (59% vs. 74%) or a credit card (41% vs. 61%). As would be expected, these outcomes vary widely based on disability category (Newman et al., 2011). Nonetheless, it is important to understand factors that contribute to these outcomes in order to improve transition assessment, intervention, and outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

Previous research has shown a strong relationship between parent expectations and student outcomes for individuals with and without disabilities (Zhang et al., 2011). In the disability literature, many studies have used NLTS2 data to examine the role of parent expectations about independent living, postsecondary education, and employment in predicting outcomes for students with disabilities. For example, parent expectations were identified as a significant mediator of postsecondary outcomes for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Kirby, 2016). Parent expectations of students with hearing impairments have also been shown to correlate positively with independent living, employment, and postsecondary education attendance (Cawthon et al., 2015) and function as an important antecedent of autonomy development in this same population (Garberoglio, Schoffstall, Cawthon, Bond, & Caemmerer, 2016). In students with severe disabilities, parent expectations about employment predicted the likelihood that an individual would gain employment following graduation (Carter et al., 2012). In students with intellectual disability, Papay and Bambara (2014) found that parent expectations for employment and postsecondary education were among the strongest predictors of those outcomes. Parent expectations have also been shown to be significant predictors of high school graduation rates and employment after high school across students from all disability categories (Doren, Gau, & Lindstrom, 2012). In fact, Wagner, Newman, and Javitz (2014) found that parent expectations about high school graduation predicted a student’s likelihood of graduating, even when controlling for demographic and disability factors.

Despite the evidence of the relevance of parent expectations, it is important to also consider youth’s own perspectives given the important role of self-determination for youth with disabilities. Self-determination is described as a “combination of skills, knowledge, and beliefs that enable a person to engage in goal-directed, self-regulated, autonomous behavior” (Field, Martin, Miller, Ward, & Wehmeyer, 1998, p. 2). The self-determination of youth with disabilities has been shown to be associated with positive postsecondary outcomes (Weymeyer, 2014). Thus, their own expectations for their futures, and their advancement toward those expectations, should be important considerations during the transition process.

In the general adolescent development literature, youth’s own expectations have been consistently shown to predict future achievement through empirical research informed by the Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) as well as Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Both theories outline ways in which the expectations that individuals have for themselves influence their efforts, persistence, and choices about performance, leading to eventual impacts on outcomes. These theories have been empirically supported in non-disability samples, suggesting expectations are important considerations during the transition to adulthood process. Yet, much less is known about the predictive power of youths’ own expectations for their futures in disability samples. In a study of 735 young adults from the Netherlands with mild intellectual disability, the individuals’ own expectations about future work level predicted their likelihood of obtaining a job and maintaining it for at least six months (Holwerda, van der Klink, de Boer, Groothoff, & Brouwer, 2013).

Only a few studies have examined the relationship between parent and youth expectations among youth with disabilities. One study of 341 young adults with intellectual disability in the Netherlands compared youth, parent, and teacher expectations about future employment (Holwerda, Brouwer, de Boer, Groothoff, & van der Klink, 2015). This study found that only teachers’ expectations significantly predicted employment after high school, with a complementary effect of parent expectations. However, this represents only a small group of people from one disability category. In a broader study, Powers and colleagues (2009) surveyed 279 parents and 242 youths with disabilities about their expectations for the future, finding that youth and parents identified the same three transition goals as top priorities: completing high school, having health insurance, and having a good doctor. However, youth were more likely than parents to report barriers to transition, placed more importance on getting married and having children, and reported higher levels of self-esteem than parents believed they had. Parents valued teacher support more highly than did youth. This study focused mainly on youth and parents’ desires for the future as opposed to their realistic expectations. Desires and realistic expectations have been shown to differ (Kraemer & Blacher, 2001), and desires likely do not predict future behavior as well as expectations. Powers and colleagues’ (2009) study did not follow up with students to collect data on outcomes after leaving high school, so it is unclear whether these desires were related to outcomes.

Youth’s own expectations for their futures have been shown to significantly predict outcomes in non-disability samples, whereas most research in disability groups has focused on the expectations of parents and how they predict postsecondary outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between youth and parent expectations, and how each relate to postsecondary outcomes in a nationally representative population of youth with disabilities. Accordingly, the current study utilized data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) to address the following aims: (1) Determine the consistency of youth and parent postsecondary expectations; (2) Describe differences between youth and parent postsecondary expectations with the entire sample and by disability category; and (3) Determine how youth and parent expectations differentially predict youth postsecondary outcomes. A prior NLTS2 report began the examination of the relationship between youth and parent expectations, using Wave 1 parent expectations and Wave 2 youth expectations. This report showed that overall parents held lower expectations than youth, but that their expectations were related (Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Levine, & Marder, 2007). However, this report did not use the longitudinal nature of the NLTS2 dataset to examine how these expectations differentially predict outcomes.

2. Methods

3. Results

This study aimed to determine the relationship between parent and youth expectations for the future among students with disabilities in the United States. Through analysis of the NLTS2 dataset, we identified that parent and youth expectations are related but significantly different. Parents consistently had lower expectations for their youth than the youth held for themselves. Although prior literature suggests that parent expectations may be more accurate (e.g., Finlay & Lyons, 2002), in this study, it was not always the parents’ expectations that best predicted postsecondary outcomes. Youth expectations contributed more strongly to postsecondary education and independent living outcomes while parent expectations contributed more strongly to employment and SSI benefit outcomes. This adds important findings to the literature that youth expectations also play an important role in prediction of post-school outcomes, especially expectations for postsecondary education and independent living. We also identified that youth in some disability categories have relatively more parent-youth expectation agreement (i.e., learning disability, speech impairment) while others are relatively less likely to agree (i.e., intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities).

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) mandates that students are required to participate in the transition planning process; however, the ways in which that happens can vary greatly (Cameto, Levine, & Wagner, 2004). Because youth, parents, and teachers often participate in the process, differing expectations between parents and youth, as was observed in this study, could potentially contribute to confusion during transition planning. This confusion may result in missed opportunities for students. In fact, a study by Riesen and colleagues (2014) described parent and youth expectations as barriers to successful employment, because they are often, “unclear, too specific, too high, or too low” (p. 36) according to providers. Thus, it is critical for all participants in the special education transition planning process to develop clear expectations and plans collaboratively.

Although disagreement between parents and adolescents is considered typical in the general population, agreement is believed to be a positive thing for adolescents and families. In non-disability samples, parent-youth agreement about expectations has been associated with better psychological adjustment, and is considered adaptive (P e ´ rez, Cumsille, & Martínez, 2016; Rote & Smetana, 2016). Specifically, P e ´ rez and colleagues (2016) identified that higher agreement in parent and youth expectations was associated with fewer adolescent externalizing symptoms (i.e., minor law-breaking behaviors, such as damaging property) and less substance use. Our findings related to disagreement, juxtaposed with the existing literature about the positive associations with agreement, suggest that rehabilitation counselors, special educators, and other transition team members may want to explicitly work with families to achieve greater expectation agreement during the transition planning process. However, more research is needed to understand if expectation disagreement is similarly maladaptive in disability populations.

Although much research has examined the role of parent expectations in predicting postsecondary outcomes for youth with disabilities, the current analysis of NLTS2 data expands knowledge in this area by revealing that youth expectations may play a stronger predictive role than parent expectations for outcomes related to postsecondary education and independent living. This should re-emphasize the importance of involving the student in transition planning, and suggests that parents should be aware and supportive of youth postsecondary goals, rather than relying only on their own goals and expectations for the youth. Parents may hold more restrictive expectations, especially around independent living, because of concern for their child’s safety. Given the current study’s findings that higher youth expectations are associated with greater independence after high school, parents should begin early to help youth work toward their individual goals. It is possible that activities promoting self-determination skills in youth with disabilities would assist with this process (Wehmeyer, 2014), although more work would need to be done to determine the relationship between self-determination and youth expectations.

Our results related to financial independence expectations are notable. In this category, we identified the weakest correlation between parent and youth expectations (r = 0.25). Financial independence is also the area in which youth expectations played a lesser role in predicting outcomes (i.e., paid employment and SSDI benefits) than parent expectations did. These results suggest that parents and youth with disabilities are not in agreement about their potential for financial independence, with youth more likely to expect that they will be financially independent, but parent expectations more accurately and strongly predicting eventual paid employment and receipt of SSI benefits. Existing literature postulates that the observed accuracy of parent expectations in broader populations may be mediated by student motivation or self-efficacy, parental involvement, or teacher expectations (Yamamoto & Holloway, 2010). Therefore, encouraging higher parent expectations, or directly addressing student motivation, student self-efficacy, parent involvement, and teacher expectations, could be an avenue for promoting more positive postsecondary outcomes related to financial independence.

Conflict of interest

None to report.