Impact of social comparisons on the developing self-perceptions of learning disabled students.

Learning disabled (LD) childrens self-perceptions were investigated using the Perceived Com-petence Scale for Children (Harter, 1982). This self-report instrument taps childrens perceptions of their scholastic and athletic ompetence, social acceptance, and feelings of global self-worth. Participants in the study were 86 students in Grades 3-8 who attended a public school LD resource room. Results indicated that social comparison processes play an important role in the formation of LD students perceived academic competence. LD students perceived themselves as becoming less academically competent across the grade span tested when they compared themselves with normally achieving students in their regular classes. When they compared their abilities with LD peers in their resource room, they maintained high perceptions of their own academic competence. Concern for the childs emotional and intellectual well-being has led those working with students who evidence learning disabilities to become interested in studies of self-concept with this population. Because, by definition, learning disabled (LD) students have experienced academic failure, a number of practitioners and researchers have been interested in the extent o which LD students feel poorly about them-selves. Research in the area of self-concept with LD students is inconclusive, however. Although a number of studies have revealed that LD students evidence worse feelings about hem-selves than do normally achieving students (Alley Deschler,