Bevens William, Stoeckl Sarah E, Schueller Stephen M, Kim Jeongmi, Cha Biblia S, Chwa Cindy, Stadnick Nicole A, Best Nakia C, Sorkin Dara H
Department of General Internal Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, United States.
Department of Psychological Science, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2024 Oct 17;15:1408837. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1408837. eCollection 2024.
People with disabilities face many health, economic and social disparities. Loneliness is recognized as a significant issue for this group however, its impact on students with disabilities (SWDs) remains a critically underexplored area of research. Importantly, as higher education continues its transition to the digital space, the potential to entrench social isolation and loneliness within this population has not been examined. This research seeks to explore the associations between SWDs, loneliness, online learning, and academic outcomes in a national survey of university students.
Using the National College Health Assessment from Spring 2022, this study compared multiple outcomes between different groups of SWDs and students without disabilities. Two ordinal regression models were used to estimate associations between loneliness, disability type and learning mode (online vs. in-person), as well as cumulative grade average (CGA) with disability type.
All disability types included within this study were positively associated with increased odds of loneliness for those engaged in online learning compared to students without disabilities. Interactions indicate a significant effect of in-person learning compared with online learning for deaf or hard of hearing students, and those with multiple disabilities. Several disability groups reported decreased odds of higher CGA compared to students without disabilities.
Loneliness is a significant issue for all SWD groups reported in this study. The impact of disability on academic outcomes is reported herein; however, its impact on medium-to-long term outcomes for these individuals remains unknown. To address inequities in higher education for SWDs, universities must invest more resources to holistically support these students.
残疾人面临诸多健康、经济和社会方面的差异。孤独被认为是这一群体的一个重大问题，然而，其对残疾学生的影响仍是一个严重未得到充分探索的研究领域。重要的是，随着高等教育持续向数字空间转型，在这一人群中加剧社会隔离和孤独的可能性尚未得到研究。本研究旨在通过一项对大学生的全国性调查，探索残疾学生、孤独感、在线学习和学业成绩之间的关联。
本研究使用2022年春季的《全国大学生健康评估》，比较了不同残疾学生群体和非残疾学生之间的多个结果。使用两个有序回归模型来估计孤独感、残疾类型和学习模式（在线学习与面授学习）之间的关联，以及残疾类型与平均绩点（CGA）之间的关联。
与非残疾学生相比，本研究中纳入的所有残疾类型都与参与在线学习的学生孤独感增加的几率呈正相关。交互作用表明，对于聋人或听力障碍学生以及患有多种残疾的学生，面授学习与在线学习相比有显著影响。与非残疾学生相比，几个残疾群体报告称获得较高CGA的几率降低。
孤独是本研究中报告的所有残疾学生群体的一个重大问题。本文报告了残疾对学业成绩的影响；然而，其对这些个体中长期结果的影响仍然未知。为了解决残疾学生在高等教育中的不平等问题，大学必须投入更多资源来全面支持这些学生。
