James Schaller

Competitive Employment for People With Autism: Correlates of Successful Closure in Competitive and Supported Employment

Differences in rates of case closure, case service cost, hours worked per week, and weekly wage between customers with autism closed successfully in competitive employment and supported employment were found using the Rehabilitation Service Administration national database of 2001. Using logistic regression, customer demographic variables related to successful competitive employment included age, years of education, and presence of a secondary disability. Case service variables related to successful competitive employment included job finding, job placement, and maintenance. Of customer demographic variables related to successful supported employment, White customers were more likely to be closed successfully. Job placement was the case service variable related to successful supported employment. Implications for rehabilitation professionals and for future research on vocational rehabilitation outcomes with customers with autism are provided.

Catastrophe, Chaos, and Complexity Models and Psychosocial Adjustment to Disability.

Rehabilitation professionals may unknowingly rely on stereotypes and specious beliefs when dealing with people with disabilities. One such belief is that an individuals adjustment to disability proceeds through well-defined stages or phases. Literally hundreds of publications based primarily on clinical observations promote various stage or phase theories of psychosocial adjustment to chronic illness and disability despite contradictory empirical findings. Developments in mathematics, physics, biology, economics, and psychology over the last four decades, however, have led to the formulation of theories that suggest new models of the adjustment process. Specifically, we believe Catastrophe, Chaos, and Complexity Theories hold considerable promise in this regard, and yet these theories have received relatively little attention in the rehabilitation research literature. The purpose of this article is to review these theories and suggest applications in adjustment to chronic illness and disability.

Teacher Efficacy Ratings by African American and European American Preservice Teachers at a Historically Black University.

The purpose of this study was to examine factor structures of a modified form of Gibson and Dembo’s Teacher Efficacy Scale with a combined total of 123 African American and European American preservice teachers at a historically Black university, test for differences between participants on teacher efficacy, and examine relationships among participant characteristics. A principal components analysis with varimax rotation yielded three factors—ability, effort, and environment— with alpha coefficients of .80, .77, .70, and .76 for the total scale. African American participants scored statistically significantly higher than European American participants on the environment factor (t = 2.3,p = .02), but not for ability (t = 1.59,p = .11) or effort (t = –.86,p = .39). Recommendations for further research were also made.

Predictors of Employment Outcomes for State-Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Consumers with HIV/AIDS.

In this study, the authors investigated the effects of demographic, medical, and vocational rehabilitation service variables on employment outcomes of persons living with HIV/AIDS. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine predictors of employment outcomes using two groups drawn from Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA-911) data. Only service variables were found to be significantly related to employment outcomes in both groups. Job placement assistance and on-the-job supports were found to be significant predictors of a successful employment outcome at closure. Whereas higher case service expenditures increased the likelihood of achieving employment at closure, longer length of time in rehabilitation decreased the likelihood of employment at closure.

Incorporating Quality of Life Concepts Into Educational Reform Creating Real Opportunities for Students With Disabilities in the 21st Century

This article discusses how education initiatives reflected in federal education reforms, statutes, and proposed agendas might be integrated and aligned using a quality of life (QOL) conceptual model. The article incorporates key aspects of the following into such an integrative framework: the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act; a framework for 21st-century learning; previous, current, and new reform agendas and policy initiatives; and the QOL construct. The authors discuss how education initiatives reflected in federal education reforms, statutes, and proposed agendas might be integrated and aligned using a QOL conceptual model.

Relationships among Self-Rated and Psychometrically Determined Vocational Aptitudes and Interests

This study investigated the relationships between self-ratings and test scores of vocational aptitudes and interests. Participants were 564 eighth-grade students in four middle schools who rated 6 aptitudes and 12 interests on the Self Rating Form and later completed the Occupational Aptitude Survey and Interest Schedule. A canonical correlational analysis between self-ratings and test scores revealed 10 statistically significant canonical variates accounting for 97% of the common variance. Univariate correlations between the same-named constructs for self-ratings and test scores ranged from .10 to.56. The results are discussed in terms of the related literature.