Trajectories of life satisfaction five years after medical discharge for traumatically acquired disability.

OBJECTIVES: We studied the predictive impact of family satisfaction, marital status, and functional impairment on the trajectories of life satisfaction over the first 5 years following medical treatment for traumatic spinal cord injury, burns, or interarticular fractures (total N = 662). It was anticipated that fewer functional impairments, being married, and greater family satisfaction would predict higher life satisfaction trajectories. METHOD: The Functional Independence Measure, the Family Satisfaction Scale, and the Life Satisfaction Index were administered 12, 24, 48, and 60 months postdischarge. RESULTS: Trajectory modeling revealed that greater functional impairment significantly predicted lower life satisfaction, regardless of injury type. However, this association diminished when marital status and family satisfaction were entered into the models. Greater family satisfaction and being married predicted greater life satisfaction across time. Moreover, there was no evidence for increases in life satisfaction trajectories over time: Trajectories were stable across time for all injury groups. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that being married and greater family satisfaction promote life satisfaction among those who traumatically acquire disability, and these beneficial effects may be more salient than the degree of functional impairment imposed by the condition.

The effects and interactions of student, teacher, and setting variables on reading outcomes for kindergartners receiving supplemental reading intervention.

This exploratory study examined the influences of student, teacher, and setting characteristics on kindergarteners' early reading outcomes and investigated whether those relations were moderated by type of intervention. Participants included 206 kindergarteners identified as at risk for reading difficulties and randomly assigned to one of two supplemental interventions: (a) an experimental explicit, systematic, code-based program or (b) their schools' typical kindergarten reading intervention. Results from separate multilevel structural equation models indicated that among student variables, entry-level alphabet knowledge was positively associated with phonemic and decoding outcomes in both conditions. Entry-level rapid automatized naming also positively influenced decoding outcomes in both conditions. However, its effect on phonemic outcomes was statistically significant only among children in the typical practice comparison condition. Regarding teacher variables, the quality of instruction was associated with significantly higher decoding outcomes in the typical reading intervention condition but had no statistically significant influence on phonemic outcomes in either condition. Among setting variables, instruction in smaller group sizes was associated with better phonemic outcomes in the comparison condition but had no statistically significant influence on outcomes of children in the intervention group. Mode of delivery (i.e., pullout vs. in class) had no statistically significant influence on either outcome variable.