Assessing self-determination in youth with and without disabilities: The Spanish version of the AIR...

Acting in a self-determined manner, that is, using problem-solving or decision-making strategies, strongly depends on the opportunities the person is given to do so by the context. In fact, context can either facilitate or thwart the opportunities of adolescents and young adults for self-determined action, though there is, to date, a lack of instruments within the Spanish context to assess these opportunities.

This study aims to address this need by adapting and validating the AIR self-determination scale to the Spanish context with a sample of young Spanish people with and without disabilities.

The results showed acceptable psychometric properties of validity and reliability, and stressed differences in school and home opportunities for developing self-determination depending on the presence or absence of disability.

The Spanish version of the AIR self-determination scale stands as a psychometrically robust instrument to assess capacities and opportunities for acting in a self-determined manner in all young people. Implications based on the differences in contextual opportunities arising from the presence of disability are also further discussed.