...Excellence in Special Education, 2002; Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1992 and 1998) and garnered substantial attention in the published literature (e.g., Algozzine, Browder, Karvonen, Test, & Wood, 2001; Malian & Nevin, 2002). Moreover, research is accruing steadily that suggests that enhanced self-determination may play a role in improving student outcomes, including academic performance (Martin et al., 2003), employment status (Wehmeyer & Palmer, 2003), postsecondary participation (Field, Sarver, & Shaw, 2003), independence (Sowers & Powers, 1995), and quality of life (Wehmeyer & Schwartz, 1997). As a result, promoting students' self-determination now constitutes an important component of best practices in the education of transition-age youth with disabilities (e.g., Council for Exceptional Children, 2003; Field & Hoffman, 2002; Field, Martin, Miller, Ward, & Wehmeyer, 1998).

Successful postschool transitions require that adolescents assume more prominent roles in educational and life planning--understanding and communicating their strengths and needs, setting and working toward self-selected goals, advocating for themselves, and self-assessing their own progress and outcomes. Such actions characterize people who are self-determined and are presumed to improve adolescents' prospects for achieving personally meaningful outcomes (Field et al., 1998). Despite considerable efforts directed toward understanding and increasing the self-determination of adolescents with intellectual disabilities and learning disabilities, far less is known about the self-determination of high school students with emotional disturbance (ED). To illustrate, recent research reviews indicated that youth with ED represented less than 2% of participants in studies examining the impact of student involvement in educational planning (Test et al., 2004) and less than 4% of participants in studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting self-determination (Algozzine et al., 2001). Additional research is needed to address several gaps associated with the literature concerning the self-determination of students with ED.

Descriptive data addressing the skills, knowledge, and perceptions of students with ED in the area of self-determination would assist researchers and practitioners in (a) identifying specific areas of strength and need, (b) developing instructional objectives and curricular materials, and (c) designing effective intervention efforts to increase self-determined behavior. The in- and postschool outcomes of adolescents with ED--outcomes that generally are worse than for any other disability category--serve as indicators that students may exhibit substantial skill deficits in the area of self-determination (e.g., Wagner, Cameto, & Newman, 2003; Wood & Cronin, 1999). However, clear descriptive data addressing the self-determination of adolescents with ED remain absent from the literature. Few peer-reviewed studies have assessed the self-determination of high school students with ED and, of those that have included participants with ED, it is not possible to extract the ratings of these students from the larger sample (e.g., Houchins, 2002).

Research on the self-determination of adolescents with ED would be strengthened when accompanied by comparisons to youth receiving special education services under other disability categories, particularly students with learning disabilities (LD). In many schools, students with ED and LD may be served by the same teachers and/or in similar classroom settings (Carlson, Brauen, Klein, Schroll, & Westat, 2002; Sabornie & deBettencourt, 2004). Such comparisons would provide information regarding whether students with ED and LD share similar instructional needs in the area of self-determination and, if so, could inform decisions about whether similar intervention packages may be warranted. Because disability labels are associated with differences in adolescents' academic, social, and behavioral skills (e.g., Anderson, Kutash, & Duchnowski, 2001; Lane, Carter, Pierson, & Glaeser, in press), it is plausible that similar differences exist in the area of self-determination. In fact, possible differences in self-determination skills among students may mediate some of the other discrepancies in the academic, social, and behavioral skills evident among students with ED and LD.

In addition to understanding the extent to which students possess self-determination skills in their behavioral repertoires, it also is essential to evaluate the extent to which opportunities exist for students with disabilities to utilize and refine those skills (Grigal, Neubert, Moon, & Graham, 2003). School and home environments may either foster or inhibit the acquisition and maintenance of students' self-determined behavior (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Students' capacity for self-determination and their opportunities to engage in self-determined behavior likely interact, synergistically impacting students' development of self-determination. For example, self-determined adolescents may seek out, create, and/or be extended frequent opportunities to engage in self-determined behaviors (e.g., choice making, decision making, problem-solving, goal setting, self-advocacy), while these opportunities, in turn, provide the context within which students can further refine their self-determined behaviors (Mithaug, Mithaug, Agran, Martin, & Wehmeyer, 2003). In contrast, students who have--or are perceived by others to have--limited skills related to self-determination, subsequently may be extended fewer opportunities by educators and parents to utilize and further develop their skills. Previous refereed studies have not examined both the skills and opportunities related to self-determined behavior for youth with disabilities. However, prior survey research suggests that opportunities for students to engage in self-determined behavior may be limited in typical secondary schools (Agran, Snow, & Swaner, 1999; Wehmeyer, Agran, & Hughes, 2000).

Because self-determination is a multidimensional construct, research is needed that examines students' self-determination from multiple perspectives. The perspectives of educators and parents may be particularly salient, as these persons have substantial, yet unique, occasions from which to observe students' opportunities for self-determination and to evaluate the extent to which students engage successfully in self-determined behaviors. Although parents' perceptions of their children's opportunities for self-determination at school have been explored (Grigal et al., 2003; Zhang, Katsiyannis, & Zhang, 2002), little is known about their assessments of opportunities at home or the extent to which their children actually engage in self-determined behavior beyond the school day. Such assessments are important given the prominent role parents potentially play in nurturing or hindering self-determined behavior (Karvonen, Test, Wood, Browder, & Algozzine, 2004). Similarly although teachers have been queried about the extent to which they promote self-determination for youth with disabilities in general (Wehmeyer et al., 2000; Zhang, Wehmeyer, & Chen, 2005), less is known about their evaluations of students' actual abilities, knowledge, and perceptions related to self-determination, particularly for adolescents with ED. Finally, only one study has examined the evaluations of adolescents with ED (i.e., adjudicated youth) concerning their own self-determination skills (Houchins, 2002), and none have queried these students regarding their opportunities to engage in self-determined behavior in school and home settings. Research directly comparing the evaluations of students with those of their parents and teachers would yield important information regarding whether stakeholders share similar or divergent perceptions of skills and opportunities that promote self-determined behavior.

In the present study, we examined the capacities and opportunities to engage in self-determined behavior of adolescents with emotional disturbance. Specifically, we sought to answer four questions. First, what are the self-determination prospects of adolescents with ED? Second, how do students with ED and LD compare with regard to their capacity for and opportunities to engage in self-determined behavior? Third, to what extent do educators, parents, and students share similar or divergent views of adolescents' capacities and opportunities in the area of...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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