Risk, Resilience, and Adjustment of Individuals with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This article uses the concepts of risk and resiliency to frame our understanding of how having a learning disability affects nonacademic outcomes such as emotional adjustment, family functioning, adolescent problems of school dropout, substance abuse and juvenile delinquency, and adult adaptation. The presence of a learning disability is viewed as a risk factor that, in and of itself, does not predict positive or negative outcomes. Rather, other risk and protective factors, as highlighted in the literature, interact with the presence of a learning disability to facilitate or impede adjustment. These risk and protective factors may be internal characteristics of the individual or external characteristics of the family, school and community environments. Implications for the development of proactive interventions and areas for future research are discussed.