Personal control and the ecology of community living settings: Beyond living-unit size and type

Personal control exercised by 74 adults from community living settings in Minnesota was evaluated. Comparisons between living-unit sizes or types controlled statistically for pre-existing differences in adaptive and challenging behavior. Individuals living semi-independently exercised more personal control than did residents of HCBS Waiver-funded settings, who had more personal control than persons from community ICFs/MR. Within the 1- to 5-person size range, size-related differences were detected in personal control. Using hierarchical regression, we found that personal characteristics, self-determination competencies, and environmental variables all made significant, unique contributions to predicting personal control. Path analysis also revealed that this range of variables was related to personal control. These findings strongly support an ecological approach to self-determination.