Journal Article

Stigma of a Label: Educational Expectations for High School Students Labeled with Learning Disabilities

Shifrer, Dara

2013

Overview

Poorer outcomes for youth labeled with learning disabilities (LDs) are often attributed to the student's own deficiencies or cumulative disadvantage; but the more troubling possibility is that special education placement limits rather than expands these students' opportunities. Labeling theory partially attributes the poorer outcomes of labeled persons to stigma related to labels. This study uses data on approximately 11,740 adolescents and their schools from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 to determine if stigma influences teachers' and parents' educational expectations for students labeled with LDs and labeled adolescents' expectations for themselves. Supporting the predictions of labeling theory, teachers and parents are more likely to perceive disabilities in, and hold lower educational expectations for labeled adolescents than for similarly achieving and behaving adolescents not labeled with disabilities. The negative effect of being labeled with LDs on adolescents' educational expectations is partially mechanized through parents' and particularly teachers' lower expectations.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc,SAGE Publications,Sage Publications,American Sociological Association
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Achievement / Adolescent / Adolescent Behavior - psychology / Adolescents / Aspirations (Psychology) / Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder / Biological and medical sciences / Child clinical studies / Children & youth / Developmental disorders / Disabilities / Education / Education, Special - standards / Educational Sociology / Expectation / Expectations / Faculty - standards / Female / Grade 10 / Health Status Disparities / High School Students / High schools / Humans / Hypothesis Testing / Labeling / Labeling (of Persons) / Learning Disabilities / Learning disabled people / Learning disorders / Learning Disorders - diagnosis / Learning Disorders - psychology / Longitudinal Studies / Male / Medical sciences / Negative Attitudes / Parent Attitudes / Parents / Parents & parenting / Parents - psychology / People with disabilities / Physically Handicapped / Predictor Variables / Prejudice / Product labeling / Professional Competence - standards / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychopathology. Psychiatry / Regression Analysis / Remedial Teaching - methods / Schools / Schools - standards / Secondary school students / Secondary schools / Social behavior / Social Bias / Social Class / Social Contexts, Health, and Well Being / Social Influences / Social Stigma / Special Education / Special needs students / Stereotypes / Stereotyping / Stigma / Stigmatization / Student Attitudes / Student Behavior / Student Characteristics / Students / Students - classification / Students - psychology / Studies / Surveys / Teacher Attitudes / Teacher Expectations of Students / Teachers / Teenagers / United States