Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Jessica Van Cleave

Abstract

First-year college students with disabilities face many challenges as they transition to postsecondary education. Strong executive function skills can help make the transition easier. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore these students’ perceptions of their executive function skills and how they described their challenges and successes. Quantitative data were collected using the Executive Skills Questionnaire-Revised and reviewed to learn about their executive function skills. Qualitative data were collected from interview transcripts and analyzed to learn about their challenges, successes, and perspectives on their skills. Descriptive statistics indicated that students with disabilities rated most areas of executive function as problematic. Additionally, the results showed there was no statistical difference between the overall survey scores of students with disabilities and their typical peers; however, a statistically significant difference was found in the organization subscale, with students with disabilities having greater than the average scores of their typical peers. The interview analysis showed students struggled with all areas of executive function during their first year of college and overestimated their abilities when compared to their survey scores. While the research is constrained to a single site and a small sample, it may provide valuable insight that encourages future research, leading to a better understanding and programming to support students with disabilities during an important college transition.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Download

Share

COinS