3 - (SYM 53) Perceptions of a New Physical Disability Identity Scale Among Adults with Physical Disabilities

Disability has traditionally been viewed as a deficit in mental health research; however, accruing work suggests that viewing disability as an identity may be protective against mental health disorders and aid in coping with stigma and experiences of discrimination. Therefore, developing disability identity measures that comprehensively capture this view of disability as an identity is an important step for promoting mental health and wellbeing in this population. While a handful of disability identity scales have been developed, little is known about how disabled people themselves view these measures, and whether the measures comprehensively capture the lived experiences of people with physical disabilities. The present study examines lay disabled adults’ perceptions of a recently developed physical disability identity scale. In addition, we aim to identify physical and psychosocial factors that may be associated with this conceptualization of physical disability identity.  

One-hundred US adults with physical disabilities will be recruited to take part in an online qualitative survey. They will be asked to complete an adaptation of the Multicomponent In-Group Identification Scale (Leach et al., 2008) developed to measure physical disability identity (Rule, Ratner, & Hill, in prep). This scale contains 27 items assessing multiple components of disability identity. Example items are “I feel connected to other people with physical disabilities.” and “The fact that I am a person with a physical disability is an important part of my identity.” After completing this scale, participants will be asked to report on any confusing items, as well as freely respond to provide aspects of their lived experience which were not captured by the measure. In addition, participants will complete measures assessing a variety of wellbeing components and psychosocial factors (e.g., sense of purpose, discrimination, depressive symptoms) as well as questions related to the nature of their disability (e.g., time since diagnosis, congenital vs acquired, etc...).  

Following our preregistered analyses, we will apply thematic coding analysis to the free responses to identify aspects of physical disability identity missing from the adapted measure. Correlational analyses also will be conducted to examine the psychosocial correlates of the disability identity measure, to examine whether this scale captured the potential benefits associated with disability identity. This talk will discuss the results of this study as well as the implications for future research.