Abuse of persons with disabilities continues to remain largely invisible, in spite of estimates suggesting that it is perpetrated against them more frequently than against those without disabilities. The aim of this study was to conduct an exploratory investigation regarding the frequency and type of abuse of a selected group of students with intellectual disabilities in one high school in Israel and compare the findings with the frequency and type of abuse reported by non-disabled youth from a similar socioeconomic background. A total of 100 students answered the "Ending the Silence" questionnaire, 50 of them with intellectual and other disabilities. The main findings indicate that students with intellectual and other disabilities suffered from abuse more frequently than their peers; most of the instances of abuse occurred within the close social environment of the victim and were repeated over time.

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Attitudes toward peers with disabilities were compared in two groups of elementary school children, Israeli (2845 children) and Canadian (1831 children), using the Chedoke‐McMaster Attitudes Toward Children with Handicaps (CATCH) scale. Israeli children expressed significantly more positive general attitudes (P=0.0001). The more favourable attitudes were seen in both areas evaluated by the CATCH, the cognitive and the affective‐behavioural. In both groups, children who had had previous experience with a disabled person expressed more positive attitudes (P=0.001). An effect of gender was seen in the Canadian but not in the Israeli children. Cultural factors appear to play a role in modelling children's attitudes toward their disabled peers and therefore should be considered before educational programmes are implemented.

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