Special Education Students' Anxiety about Professional future.

Abstract

This study aimed at studying anxiety about professional future among special education students and its relation to students' gender, academic year, and specialization. The study was applied to (210) students in special education department, faculty of education, Taibah University. It used the Special Education Students' Professional Future Anxiety Scale which was prepared by the researcher. Mean, Standard Deviation, T-test, ANOVA, Scheffe tests were used in statistical analysis of data. Results show that the factors leading to professional future anxiety is the students' worry about their professional efficacy, then getting a suitable career, professional relations and finally social position. Results also show that there were no statistically significant differences in professional future anxiety attributed to students' gender or academic year in total degree and scale dimensions except for "worry about social position" where there were statistically significant differences in favour of males and students of the second year. There were also statistically significant differences attributed to specialization in favour of "language and communication disorders" students compared with "intellectual disability" students in the total degree and in worry about both professional efficacy and professional relations; while there were no statistically significant differences among the rest specializations. Results were discussed and explained. Recommendations are included.