INVESTIGATING THE ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT OF ADOLESCENTS WITH LEARNING-DISABILITIES - A STRUCTURAL MODELING APPROACH

Although academic performance is a primary component of the federal de finition of learning disabilities (LD), there have been few investigat ions of factors that influence academic growth among adolescents with LU. The focus of the present study is parental attitudes, their effect s on adolescents with and without LD and on the academic achievement o f those students. The estimated model accounted for 72% and 74% of the variance in academic achievement for the groups of students with and without LD, respectively. The findings support the position that paren tal expectations and perceptions of parental expectations are instrume ntal in raising the academic expectations and the achievement of adole scents with and without LD. The comparison between the students with a nd without LD showed that the most important factors were the same for both groups, suggesting the model worked in the same way for the two populations.