Relationships among Client Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy, Optimism, and Type of Disability of Vocational Rehabilitation Clients

• Main Author: Reed, Dustin H
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Congenital anomalies; Disabled people; Occupational psychology; Occupational Therapy; Rehabilitation; Social research
• ISBN: 9780438468542; 0438468546

People living with disabilities comprise the largest minority in the United States and the world. It is common knowledge that most people with disabilities are unemployed. There are governmental agencies (i.e., Rehabilitation Service Administration) that aim to help people with disabilities become autonomous and productive members of society. Services are offered through federal and state agencies (i.e., Veterans Affairs Offices, State Rehabilitation Services) which aim to empower people with disabilities through varying means including providing vocational rehabilitation counseling, helping to pay for education, or providing needed accommodations in life (i.e., school, work, home). This study examined relationships among optimism, self-efficacy, the type of disability clients possess, and clients’ satisfaction with services. No significant relationship was found between participant self-efficacy and their satisfaction with the vocational rehabilitation services they had received. However, results demonstrated that participants with higher optimism scores were more satisfied with vocational rehabilitation services, and that participants with congenital disabilities were more satisfied with rehabilitation services than were participants who acquired disabilities later in life. These findings suggest that perhaps the level of satisfaction expressed by individuals receiving vocational rehabilitation services may be influenced by whether they are optimistic or pessimistic and by whether they were born with their disability or acquired their disability later in life. In addition, the results found that participants with congenital disabilities had higher optimism scores than did participants with acquired disabilities. No relationship was found between type of disability (congenital or acquired) and self-efficacy scores of participants. Limitations, implications of findings, and suggestions for future research are discussed.