The effects of a healing garden program based on vocational adaptation on career attitude for college students with developmental disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a healing garden program based on internal factors of vocational adaptation on career attitude for college students with developmental disabilities. First, healing garden program was defined by a group of experts related to education for developmental disabilities in the industry and academia through the focus group interview. Second, the healing garden program for college students with developmental disabilities was carried out for 15 weeks. Third, this study examined the effects of healing garden program based on internal factors of vocational adaptation on career attitude for college students with developmental disabilities. The participants of this study were 55 college students with developmental disabilities in N University, with 25 students placed in the experimental group and the other 30 in the control group. As a result of examination, the difference between before and after the program, it was found that factors of career attitude were improved significantly after the program in the experimental group, with Factor 1 (determination) increased from 2.08 to 3.39, Factor 2 (finality) from 2.28 to 3.19, Factor 3 (confidence) from 2.20 to 3.69, Factor 4 (preparation) from 2.12 to 3.79, and Factor 5 (independence) from 1.88 to 3.63. But the control group did not show a significant improvement after 15 weeks of the program except Factor 3 (confidence) and Factor 5 (independence). It was found that the healing garden program based on internal factors of vocational adaptation had effects on career attitude for college students with developmental disabilities. Finally, the program will contribute to vocational rehabilitation for college students with disabilities. The findings further suggest that healing gardening programs that facilitate career attitudes must be continuously developed and applied in order to establish effective transition from school to the world of vocational adaptation.