Loneliness and Students With Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms: Self-Perceptions, Coping Strategies, and Preferred Interventions

Inclusive education presents new social challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD) and makes it necessary to reevaluate social relationships and self-perceptions. Investigating social phenomena such as loneliness from the students' perspective facilitates the identification of factors that contribute to this subjective experience and aids in developing needed interventions. Twenty students with LD educated in inclusive fourth and fifth grades were interviewed using the Loneliness Interview Protocol (Pavri & Monda-Amaya, 1997) to determine their experience with school-related loneliness and the coping strategies they used. Students also selected most useful intervention strategies when presented with situations causing loneliness at school. The Children's Loneliness Scale (Asher, Hymel, & Renshaw, 1984) was used to classify students according to severity of loneliness. Most students felt lonely at school when they were bored or lacked a companion, and they coped by engaging in a solitary activ...