Exploring the Relationship between Student and Teacher/Proxy-Respondent Scores on the Self-Determination Inventory

ABSTRACT

The Self-Determination Inventory (SDI) is a suite of tools developed to measure self-determination. The SDI: Student Report was recently validated for adolescents aged 13 to 22 with and without disabilities across diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. A parallel, proxy report version to be completed by teachers or parents, the SDI: Parent/Teacher Report is also available; however, limited research has explored the congruence of ratings made on the self and proxy report versions. The present study utilized multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to compare ratings on the SDI made by adolescents and their teachers. Findings suggest that the same set of items can be used to measure self-determination using the Self-Determination Inventory across students and teachers, but that there are low correlations between self- and proxy-scores. Teacher respondents tended to report that adolescents had lower levels of self-determination, although the discrepancy between adolescent self-report and teacher proxy-report varied based on the disability status and race/ethnicity of the student. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Acknowledgments

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R324A130065 to the University of Kansas. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/TPA6U.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R324A130065 to the University of Kansas. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.