BACKGROUND:

Increasing numbers of children and youths are being diagnosed with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and psychiatric disabilities. These youths are also enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities at increasing rates. In fact, in combination, they represent the largest group of students with disabilities in higher education.

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this investigation was to (a) summarize the demographic characteristics, in-college experiences, and persistence outcomes of students with and without learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and psychiatric disabilities and (b) examine the effect of having one of these disabilities on students’ three-year persistence outcomes at four-year higher education institutions.

METHODS:

Secondary data analyses were conducted for a sample of 7,750 students who enrolled at four-year institutions utilizing data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06). Descriptive analyses were used to summarize demographic characteristics, in-college experiences, and persistence outcomes of students with and without learning disabilities, attention deficit hyper activity disorder, and psychiatric disabilities. Univariate and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to examine the effect of having one of these disabilities on students’ three-year persistence outcomes at four-year higher education institutions.

RESULTS:

We discovered that students with these disabilities in our sample (a) did not have the background characteristics typically associated with non-persistence and (b) reported being more academically and socially integrated into their institutions than participants without disabilities. However, they still withdrew from college in higher rates both by the end of the first and second years of college. The results from the multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that when holding students’ demographic and in-college predictors constant, having one of these disabilities still increased the odds of non-persistence. Hierarchical multinomial logistic regression analysis further confirmed that the disability status significantly contributed to the likelihood of non-persistence over and above the combination of both the background characteristics and the in-college experiences factors.

CONCLUSION:

These findings have several important vocational rehabilitation practice and research implications for better facilitating the academic persistence of these students.