Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Learning disabilities have been of growing interest in the last 30 years. Learning disabilities are neurologically based problems interfering with learning academic skills related to reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning in youths with average or above–average intelligence. In addition to limitations in learning processes, students with learning disabilities also experience problems in emotional and social dimensions. Indeed, the presence of learning disabilities doubles the likelihood of developing psychopathology. Various authors have reported a higher frequency of internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and depression, externalizing disorders, and social deviance, in students with learning disabilities when compared to students without learning problems. This finding implicitly highlights the need for research that examines emotional and social variables among students with learning disabilities compared to their normal peers. Understanding what dimensions and variables appear in a specific population leads to providing more efficient psychological services to the members of that group. In this regard, the present study was conducted to compare emotional self–efficacy, emotional self–awareness, and self–acceptance in students with and without learning disabilities.
Methods: The present study was a descriptive causal–comparative research. The statistical population included seventh–, eighth–, and ninth–grade female students with and without learning disabilities studying in the academic year 2021–2022 in public schools in Bojnurd City, Iran. A group of 23 female students diagnosed with learning disabilities by intelligence experts of Bojnurd special education was selected in an accessible way. To remove the confounding factors, the sample of normal students was homogenized, and they were chosen from among the classmates of students with learning disabilities. In this regard, normal students were selected based on the characteristics of the group of students with learning disabilities, and variables such as age, level of education, and year of entry into school were controlled by the matching method so that the difference between the groups is only in the research variables. Ethical considerations in this study included the students' informed consent to participate in the research, confidentiality of information, and the research not conflicting with the subject's religious and cultural norms and society. Assessment of both groups was done using the Self–efficacy Questionnaire in Children & Youths (Morris, 2001), the Emotional Self–awareness Scale (Grant et al., 2002), and the Unconditional Self–acceptance Questionnaire (Chamberlain & Haga, 2001). The reliability of the research tools was checked by the Cronbach alpha method, and values of 0.71, 0.70, and 0.84 were obtained for self–efficacy, emotional self–awareness, and unconditional self–acceptance, respectively. For data analysis, SPSS software version 23 was used, and depending on the level of data measurement and statistical assumptions, mean and standard deviation were used at the descriptive statistics level. Multivariate analysis of variance test was used at the inferential statistics level. A significance level of 0.05 was considered.
Results: The results showed a significant difference between the two groups of students with learning disabilities and normal students in the variables of emotional self–awareness (p=0.002) and self–acceptance (p=0.006), but no significant difference between the two groups in the variable of emotional self–efficacy (p=0.370). Considering the effect size, 19% of the changes in emotional self–awareness and 16% of the changes in self–acceptance were related to the presence of learning disabilities.
Conclusion: According to the findings, students with learning disabilities have more problems in emotional and social dimensions (emotional self–awareness and self–acceptance) compared to their normal peers.