Employment following spinal cord injury: A covariance structure analysis.

120 former patients of a rehabilitation center responded to a survey that tested 2 structural models of employment status following spinal cord injury. The direct effect model provided a very poor representation of the data. The model proposed in this study provided a better fit, but also fell short of the minimum acceptable goodness-of-fit standards. Educational attainment (EA), motivation to work (MTW), social support, and driving one's own car had significant direct paths to employment status. EA and lesion level were linked to MTW. Age at injury directly predicted EA. The hypothesized link between locus of control and MTW was rejected, and subsequent investigation raised questions about its direction of causality with other variables in the model. A revised model for future research was presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)