The Validation of the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report (SDI:SR) Japanese Translation with High School Students with Intellectual Disability

Abstract Self-determination is a fundamental human right and a dispositional characteristic manifested when people act or cause things to happen as they set and work towards goals in their lives. In the United States, researchers have established a positive relationship between higher self-determination status and in-school and postschool outcomes for students with intellectual disability leading to multiple assessments and interventions being developed to create self-determination opportunities for students with intellectual disability. On the other hand, in Japan, although educational policy and practice indicate the importance of embedding self-determination in daily instruction, there has not been a reliable assessment to understand self-determination status for students with intellectual disability to inform individualized self-determination instruction. Recently, in the U.S., a new self-determination assessment informed by Causal Agency Theory, the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report (SDI:SR) was developed and validated for youth and young adults with and without disabilities aged 13 to 22. This paper reports the results of a validation study of the Japanese translation of the SDI:SR with high school students with intellectual disability. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the factor structure of the SDI:SR Japanese translation was established. There were patterns of differences in the sample, that can inform future work in Japan and internationally with a focus on ensuring that efforts to advance self-determination are aligned with the educational system and cultural values of diverse groups of students with intellectual disability.