The effect of social contact on college students’ attitudes toward severely handicapped students and their educational integration

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Research on integration suggests that the major benefit of educational integrated programmes is the facilitation of intergroup contact between mentally handicapped and non‐handicapped students. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of different amounts of social contact with severely handicapped students on attitudes and emotional reactions of college students towards such students and their integration into mainstream education. The study was carried out in a tertiary college which has a link programme with a local school for pupils with severe learning difficulties. The results indicated that those participants who had social contact with severely handicapped students held more favourable attitudes and emotional reactions toward such students than did those who had no social contact with this group. The study concludes that the educational integration programmes can positively modify attitudes and emotional reactions of college students towards severely handicapped students. However, in order to implement an effective link or integration programme and to foster attitudes more favourable towards severely handicapped students, the study recommends that more opportunities for intergroup contact and social interaction between non‐handicapped and handicapped students need to be provided.

Measuring children's attitudes towards peers with disabilities: a review of instruments

“…Six of the instruments (ACL, Behavioural Intention Scale, 46 CATCH, Foley Scale, PATHS, and SAQ) were used in two or more studies carried out by researchers other than those involved in the instruments' original development, while seven (Activity Preference List, Children's Attitude Toward Handicapped Scale, 47 Emotional Reaction Scale, 48 Social Distance Scale, 49 Semantic Differential Scale, 49 Friendship Activity Scale [FAS], 50 and Multi-Response Attitude Scale) were used in one other study by a different research group. The other six were used only by the original authors or by members of their research teams.…”

"Deporte inclusivo en la escuela": diseño y análisis de un programa de intervencion para promover la inclusión del alumnado con discapacidad en Educación Física

“…Una variable que se ha demostrado estar relacionada con una actitud más positiva es el contacto previo con personas con discapacidad (Beh-Pajooh, 1991;de Laat et al, 2013;Kalyva y Agaliotis, 2013;Nikolaraizi y De Reybekiel, 2001;Nikolaraizi et al, 2005;Rosenbaum, Armstrong, y King, 1988;Scior, 2011;Siperstein et al, 2007;Slininger et al, 2000;Voeltz, 1980), sin embargo, otros autores obtuvieron resultados distintos ya que obtuvieron efectos negativos tras la experiencia previa con compañeros con discapacidad (Arampatzi et al, 2011;Godeau et al, 2010;Vignes et al, 2009). …”

“…A pesar de que el tema es tratado en muchos de los estudios del ámbito, las variables de género y edad han demostrado ser menos consistentes en relación a las actitudes (Lijuan et al, 2015;Oh et al, 2010), no habiendo un claro consenso en la literatura y encontrando autores que han cuestionado la relación directa entre el género y la actitud hacia la inclusión (Beh-Pajooh, 1991;Duchane y French, 1998;Hodge, Davis, et al, 2002;Jobe et al, 1996;Kudláèek et 2010), ni brindar el apoyo adecuado y los programas individualizada a los alumnos con discapacidad (Block y Rizzo, 1995).…”

“…Los resultados obtenidos en estudios realizados en distintos países refuerzan la idea de que los docentes que reciben formación específica para atender a los alumnos con discapacidad tienen reacciones más afectivas y actitudes más favorables que los que no la han recibido (Beh-Pajooh, 1991;Block y Rizzo, 1995;Obrusnikova, 2008), aunque se puedan encontrar otros estudios que no encontraron ninguna correlación significativa entre los cursos de formación y las creencias (Rizzo y Vispoel, 1991;Rizzo y Wright, 1988).…”

“…En el caso concreto de la formación específica, coincidimos con los resultados obtenidos por algunos autores en que la formación de los profesores no es suficiente para dirigir de manera autónoma una sesión de EF (Beh-Pajooh, 1991;Block y Rizzo, 1995;Davis et al, 2007;Rust y Sinelnikov, 2010).…”