Structural Relationship among Disability Acceptance, Resilience, and Social Participation of Adolescents with Physical Disabilities

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural relationship among disability acceptance, resilience, and social participation of adolescents with physical disabilities. To these ends, 255 adolescents with physical disabilities (mean age was 16.9, and 155 out of 250 were male and 100 female) were asked to complete questionnaire. The collected data were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Cronbach’s Alpha test, correlation analysis and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). In addition, bootstrapping was used to examine the mediating effect of resilience. The results were as follows. Disability acceptance affected the resilience and social participation, but the influence that disability acceptance affected on social participation was not significant. Resilience affected social participation, in particular, showed significant indirect effects on the impact of disability acceptance on social participation (β = .60, p = .005, 95% CI = .47 to.81) and mediated 86.9% of the total effect. In conclusion, based on these results, it was found that resilience plays a very positive role in promoting social participation of adolescents with physical disabilities. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an opportunity to seek ways to utilise resilience as an effective strategy for their participating in various social activities.