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Postsecondary students with disabilities risk facing challenges while pursuing their academic goals. Although disability service providers are encouraged to support their goal pursuit, its actualization and the role of individual differences remain poorly researched. We examine the role of autonomy striving dispositional styles, need satisfaction, and goal action crisis. A three-wave, semester-long study was conducted with 234 university students with disabilities. Through path analysis, a type of structural equation modeling, four hypotheses were tested. Assisted autonomy was associated with higher need satisfaction and less severe goal action crises in the middle of the semester. Indirect effects were also evidenced on goal progress and positive affect at the end of the semester. Striving to satisfy their autonomy need through collaborative means supports well-being and academic goal progress for university students with disabilities. Disability service providers and university settings are thus encouraged to create need-supportive environments and foster collaboration across campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates whether the way Black young adults constructed their narratives regarding the stressful events of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the black lives matter (BLM) protests related to adjustment over time. A two‐wave mixed prospective and retrospective longitudinal study was conducted in July and December 2020 and included a total of 90 Black young adults. Narrative reports were collected at baseline to determine the psychological interpretations of the two events and were coded based on affect disclosure. Both time points examined adjustment to the COVID‐19 pandemic and the BLM protests as well as the extent to which the basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence were affected. Our results showed that disclosure of high arousal negative affect in narratives at baseline was associated with better adjustment over time. Additionally, results of process analyses showed that satisfaction of the basic psychological need for autonomy (e.g., feelings of personal agency, choice, and volition) mediated the association between narratives and adjustment. These results suggest that engaging in disclosure of high arousal negative affect may be associated with heightening adjustment because it enhances individuals' autonomy, perhaps resulting in a beneficial integration of the events into their broader life narratives. These findings highlight the potential of well‐constructed narratives to impact adjustment over time and have implications for clinical practice to support Racialized communities during unprecedented events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forming an identity is a critical developmental task that is affected by important people in an individual's social environment, such as friends and family members. This investigation compared whether autonomy support from different sources (family/peer) given in distinct contexts (personal goals/crises) was associated with identity exploration and commitment in university students over an 8-month academic year. The study used a five-wave prospective longitudinal design with identity measured at baseline and termination. Participants were asked to name two individuals who supported them during personal goal pursuits and two who supported them during times of crisis. Supporters were sorted into convoys of family and peers. Results showed that perceiving autonomy support during crises from both sources was associated with an increase in identity exploration, suggesting that family members and peers may play an important role during crises and in promoting identity exploration. By contrast, only family autonomy support for goals was related to greater identity commitment, suggesting that perceiving autonomy support from family in distinct circumstances may encourage different aspects of identity development. Basic need satisfaction mediated the relation between family autonomy support for goals and identity commitment and between family (but not peer) autonomy support during crises and identity exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]