The Effects of Economic Characteristics and Health Characteristics on Life Satisfaction of Employed Persons with Developmental Disabilities: Mediating Effect of Self-Esteem
Authors:   Form of Public Safety and Culture, Shin Young Il 
Published: August 2022

Developmental disabilities collectively refer to intellectual disabilities and autistic disorders, and unlike other types of disabilities, the prevalence of disability is very high among young people. Individual Act to Support Developmental Disabilities In 2014, 「Act on Guarantee of Rights and Welfare Support for Persons with Developmental Disabilities」 was enacted. However, interest in the life satisfaction of people with developmental disabilities in daily life is increasing only recently, when the individualism of persons with disabilities has taken root due to the spread of the independent living and social integration paradigm. This study verified the mediating effect of self-esteem in the path that economic and health characteristics of employed people with developmental disabilities affect life satisfaction.
The research data was analyzed by extracting data from those with developmental disabilities who were employed from among the results of the second wave of the second wave of the 2020 Employment Panel Survey for Persons with Disabilities(PSED) as a sample. Factor analysis was performed using SPSS V26, and correlation, normality analysis, and descriptive statistics for major variables were performed to verify normality necessary for hypothesis verification. Based on this, causal relations and mediating effects were analyzed by hierarchical regression analysis. The validation of the significance of mediating effects was conducted in SPSS Process Macro Ver. 4.1.
As a result of the analysis, first, it was found that the economic characteristics and health characteristics of the employed people with developmental disabilities had an effect on life satisfaction. Second, among the economic characteristics of persons with developmental disabilities, self-esteem showed a fully mediated effect in whether they were a recipient or not in the path of life satisfaction. Third, in the path that the health characteristics of the developmentally disabled, such as health status and need for help from others, had a positive effect on life satisfaction, self-esteem had a partial mediating effect.
Based on this, a practical strategy to utilize self-esteem and health status was proposed to improve the life satisfaction of employed people with developmental disabilities. First, paying attention to the fact that the health characteristics of people with developmental disabilities have a stronger effect on life satisfaction than economic characteristics, we proposed a strategy to expand participation in social activities of people with developmental disabilities and a plan to use the ICT platform adopting the 4th industrial revolution technology. In addition, in order to improve the self-esteem of people with developmental disabilities, a method of linking a company employing the disabled and a welfare center for the disabled, and a method of organizing a working group in a form that allows for peer counseling were suggested. In addition, a systematic proposal was made to adjust the activity support training curriculum so that active volunteers who provide activity support services for the severely disabled can be used as a support system for people with developmental disabilities.