Autonomy and Competence as Motivational Factors in Students with Learning Disabilities and Emotional Handicaps

Over 450 students (136 elementary, 321 junior and senior high school) with primary handicapping codes of learning disability (LD) or emotional handicap (EH) completed several questionnaires. All participants were from self-contained classrooms of a state-operated special education system. Questionnaires assessed students' self-perceptions and perceptions of home and classroom contexts, with all variables theoretically reflecting either the competence or the autonomy aspects of internal motivation or students' personal adjustment. Math and reading standardized achievement test scores were obtained from school records. Using multiple regression analyses, students' achievement and adjustment were predicted from the motivationally relevant self-perception and perception-of-context variables. Interestingly, different patterns of relations emerged for the students with LD and EH.