Unified Extracurricular Activities as a Pathway to Social Inclusion in High Schools

Abstract

The present study examined how a multicomponent intervention embedded in a high school's extracurricular framework impacts students' acceptance of peers with intellectual disability (ID). Data were collected from eight high schools, three of which implemented the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools (UCS) program involving inclusive sports, clubs, and schoolwide events, and five of which did not. A pretest-posttest survey design was used to measure students' attitudes, perceptions, and interactions (n = 1,230). Lagged dependent variable modeling revealed that UCS participation significantly predicted improved attitudes toward peers with ID and perceptions of school social inclusion, as well as increased social interactions with peers with ID. Unified extracurricular activities may be the next step forward in promoting an inclusive school culture.

A Systematic Review of How Peer-Mediated Interventions Impact Students Without Disabilities

“…These studies either (a) measured and reported a peer behavior over time such that visual analysis could be used to determine a functional relation (Bensted, 2000; Cushing & Kennedy, 1997; McDonnell et al, 2001; Shukla et al, 1998) or (b) compared pre- and postscores on a measurement tool between the peers and a control group of peers who did not participate in the PMI (Carter et al, 2001; Haring et al, 1987; Hunsaker, 2014; R. Johnson et al, 1983; Siperstein et al, 2019; Wilson, 1998). The majority of studies ( n = 61) used researcher-designed measures to capture peer impact.…”

“…Koegel et al (2013) asked six peer network members whether they made new friends (response options were limited to yes or no); five responded yes and two named the student with disabilities as that new friend. Siperstein et al (2019) asked peers who were part of a Unified Champion Schools (UCS) program to complete both a prosocialness and social inclusion survey before and after their participation. Results of the measures suggest participation in the UCS program significantly predicted increased social interactions with students with intellectual disability.…”

“…However, total SDQ scores indicated that attitudes of peers remained positive after one semester and differed from those of students who did not participate in a PMI. Finally, both Hunsaker (2014) and Siperstein et al (2019) administered the CATCH to peers pre- and post-PMI. Hunsaker found significant pre–post differences between peers who did and did not participate in a peer tutoring PMI, indicating peer tutors had a more positive change in attitude.…”

It's right, but risky too: Inclusive behavior as a positive risk in adolescence

“…Given this variation in engagement, we elected to conduct separate focus groups for students who did and did not directly participate in UCS sports and clubs to ensure participants in each group were able to draw on similar shared experiences (e.g., full participation in UCS clubs vs. general exposure to school-wide events) that may have inluenced their perspectives. For example, students who participate in these more intensive forms of inclusive programming have more opportunities to engage with their peers with disabilities; this participation has been previously linked to more positive perceptions of social inclusion and more positive attitudes toward including peers with intellectual disability (Siperstein et al, 2017(Siperstein et al, , 2019. Thus, separate focus groups allowed us to reduce the possibility of heightened social desirability introduced by students with experiences in inclusive programming.…”

Going beyond Environment to Context: Leveraging the Power of Context to Produce Change

“…Because of these significant trends and developments, it has become necessary to move beyond the "person-environment fit paradigm" to the "context paradigm" that focuses on the interrelated conditions that surround the phenomenon being examined. Once these contextual factors and influencing conditions are understood, individuals, organizations, systems, and policy makers are in a better position to use this understanding to pursue the many opportunities that multiple stakeholders have to unfreeze the status quo and drive change through policies and practices that build contexts to enhance quality of life, human rights, and human functioning outcomes [17][18][19][20].…”