Predictive Role of Social Support on School Adjustment of University Students with Visual Impairment in Rivers State, Nigeria

The Nigerian government has committed to promoting inclusive education policy and goals at all levels over the last decade; however, the literature agrees that significant institutional and funding weaknesses have hampered the implementation of inclusion education initiatives in most public institutions. This study predicts the role of social support in the school adjustment of university students with visual impairments in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational research design. A population of 11 students with visual impairments from the two Rivers State-owned universities was employed for the study, and the census method was applied to recruiting participants. The study was guided by five (5) research questions and five corresponding hypotheses tested at an alpha (.05) level of significance. Data for the study was collected using two adapted questionnaires, the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and the School Adjustment Rating Scale (SARS). The reliability of the instruments was determined using Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency method, which produced coefficients of .95 for the SSRS and .96 for the SARS. The data was analysed using simple and multiple linear regression statistics with the aid of SPSS version 27. The findings revealed that emotional support (r² = .764, β = .87, p < .001), informational support (r² = .67, β = .82, p < .001), instrumental support (r² = .81, β = .90, p < .001) and companionship (r² = .83, β = .91, p < .001) separately are strong predictors of school adjustment in students with visual impairment in Rivers State universities. Also, it was revealed that social support (emotional, informational, instrumental supports and companionship) jointly accounted for 93.8% of the variance in school adjustment of students with visual impairment in Rivers State universities (R = .98, adj. R² = .938, p < .001). The universities should create a more inclusive and supportive environment for students with visual impairments by tailoring social support to address the specific needs of these students to enhance their school adjustment and foster positive long-term outcomes beyond their university experience.