This is a longitudinal study to examine whether psychological factors, such as depression, self-esteem, and
disability adaptation, that influence life satisfaction in the disabled, show a difference based on gender.
Using the Korean Welfare Panel Study (2006-2013), date on 842 disabled individuals above the age of
20 years were extracted. Latent growth modeling and multi-group structural equation modeling were
conducted on this data using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0. The analysis outcome suggested that life
satisfaction in the disabled gradually increased with time. However, high life satisfaction early in life
tended to decrease with time. This study confirmed that the association of the life satisfaction trajectory,
including early years of self-esteem and disability adaptation difficulty, and gender was statistically
significant. Therefore, higher levels of self-esteem were associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, and
this tendency was relatively greater in disabled men than in disabled women. Moreover, the higher degrees
of disability adaptation difficulty and its association with the higher degrees of life satisfaction were more
significant in disabled men than in disabled women. These research results - have practical implications in
enhancing life satisfaction in the disabled.