Life Skills Development in Junior Secondary Students from Hong Kong with Specific Learning Difficulties.

摘要

This study explored the level of life skills self-efficacy among students with dyslexia, which is termed as specific learning difficulties in reading and writing (SpLD) in Hong Kong and to investigate associations between self-efficacy and the factors in their micro- and meso- systems, such as gender, grade levels, perceived academic achievement, parenting practices, and school connectedness. One hundred and thirty three students with SpLD completed the Life Skills Development Self-Efficacy Inventory that comprises four main scales covering Academic Self-Efficacy (A-SES), Personal Self-Efficacy (P-SES), Social Self-Efficacy (S-SES), and Career and Talent Development Self-Efficacy (CTD-SES); School Connectedness Scale (SCS); Parent Support Scale (PSS); Parent Control Scale (PCS); and a personal data form. The level of self-efficacy of the participants with SpLD was compared to the normative data collected from students in relation to their grades in mainstream schools in Hong Kong.;Results indicated that SpLD participants possessed reasonably positive views of their own self-efficacy in the academic, personal, social, and career and talent development domains. Their level of overall self-efficacy was comparable to that of the local normative group. In this SpLD sample, girls, relatively to boys, were more confident in applying life skills in academic, and career and talent development domains. In contrast to previous local studies showing that there was a slight decline in life skills self-efficacy from preadolescence through late adolescence in local normative groups, the self-efficacy of SpLD participants stayed leveled from grades S.1 through S.3 in this study. In multiple regression analysis, parent support positively significantly predicted self-efficacy in all domains, and it mediated the effect of teacher connectedness and peer connectedness in predicting self-efficacy to a certain extent. However, parent control significantly predicted only leadership. Both teacher connectedness and peer connectedness positively significantly predicted self-efficacy in academic development, social development, and career and talent development. Gender and perceived academic achievement had modest effects on self-efficacy in a few life skills components. Findings were discussed from the perspectives of the bio-ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007) and the school-based self system process model (Waters, Cross, and Runions, 2010). Implications for research and intervention were discussed.;Keywords: specific learning difficulties, life skills, self-efficacy, school ecology, parenting practices, school connectedness