Gender and Attitudes Toward People Using Wheelchairs: A Multidimensional Perspective

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of observer’s gender and target’s gender on attitudes toward people who use wheelchairs due to a physical disability. Four hundred four Jewish Israeli students without disabilities completed the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale Toward Persons With Disabilities (MAS). Initially, confirmatory factor analysis was used to revalidate the MAS. Five factors of attitudes were confirmed: distancing behaviors, positive cognitions, negative emotions, interpersonal stress, and calm. Findings showed that an encounter with a person using a wheelchair raised more positive cognitions and less distancing behaviors, but also evoked more negative emotions, than an encounter with a person without a disability. In the case of an encounter with a person without a disability, men contributed to greater interpersonal stress among women, whereas women contributed to greater interpersonal stress among men. The multidimensional approach revealed that the effect of gender was mostly salient with regard to interpersonal stress.

Factor analysis of the Spanish Multidimensional Attitudes Scale Toward Persons with Disabilities.

“…All 10 items from the original Cognition subscale loaded with simple structure onto Factor 1, suggesting the retention of all 10. Eleven out of the 16 items from the original Affect subscale loaded witb simple structure onto Factor 2, while three more strongly loaded onto Factor 4, the same pattern of loadings that Vilchinsky et al (2010) named the Calm subscale. Two items from the original Affect subscale did not load onto any factor and were removed.…”

“…Using a sample of 404 Jewish Israeli college students without disabilities, flve factors were found using a 22-item version: Negative Affect, Interpersonal Stress, Calm, Positive Cognitions, and Distancing Behaviors. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for MAS factors ranges from .68 to .90 (Vilchinsky, Werner, & Findler, 2010). For this study, the original MAS was translated into Spanish, keeping the original structure, by one bilingual and bicultural researcher originally from Colombia, South America.…”

Attitudes of Nurses Toward Children With Disabilities: The Attitudes of Nursing Students Toward Children With Disabilities: An Experimental Design

“…Attitude and behavior, when consistent, provide stability in one's belief pattern. The characteristics of one's disability, such as the visual appearance of the disabled individual, can attribute to an attitude [33]. The quality of the interaction between the disabled and non-disabled individual focuses on the disability, and not the person behind the disability, leading to negative attitudes.…”

“…The quality of the interaction between the disabled and non-disabled individual focuses on the disability, and not the person behind the disability, leading to negative attitudes. It is the characteristics of prior beliefs, occupational training, demographic variables, and the perception of status relative the disabled that influence attitude [33]. Education can influence attitude formation.…”

Using robots to help people habituate to visible disabilities

“…Our second measure was the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale Toward Persons With Disabilities (MAS) [51], [69]. This is a 24-item self-report measure that examines attitudes toward PWDs using a social scene vignette where "Pat" encounters a wheelchair user in a cafe.…”