Disability, stress and readjustment: The function of the professional's latent goals and effective behavior in rehabilitation

The paper focuses on the factors which may possibly explain why rehabilitation agencies' assistance may eventually result in maladjustment--a conclusion inferred from recent studies on the readjustment of disabled persons. Multivariate analysis of data from a study among Israeli disabled war veterans ascertains that the rehabilitant's perception of the rehabilitator as pursuing a predominant though latent goal of promoting his/her own interests, constitutes a major factor in the intervention's detrimental outcomes. The rehabilitator's demonstration of 'affective' (sincerely humane) behavior, on the other hand, counteracts the eventually deleterious consequences. The study renders further support to the frequently emphasized significance of the rehabilitant's subjective assessment of the demands confronting him in their becoming stressors. The data ascertains that it is not the severity of the impairment itself, but rather the subjective assessment of its implication that may have stress-arousing consequences. The present study contributes a further development of the previously established paradigm of 'Readjustment of Disabled Persons', contributing to the understanding of the factors facilitating and impeding readjustment.