Attitudes of Pakistani Community Members and Staff Toward People with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

The acceptance and inclusion of persons with intellectual disability can vary across cultures, and understanding attitudes can provide insight into such variation. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored attitudes toward people with intellectual disability among Pakistani community members and disability service providers. We administered the Community Living Attitudes Scale (Henry et al., 1996), a measure of attitudes toward people with intellectual disability developed in the United States, to 262 community members and 190 disability service providers in Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis found a 4-factor solution (empowerment, similarity, exclusion, and sheltering) fit the Pakistani sample. More positive attitudes were observed in staff serving people with intellectual disability, females, Christians, Hindus, Sunnis, and people with greater education. We discuss implications for research, theory, and practice.

Attitudes towards people with intellectual disability in the UK and Libya: A cross-cultural comparison

“…of the Libyan sample are similar to a community sample of Sunni Muslims living in Pakistan (Patka, Keys, Henry, & McDonald, 2013).…”

“…The only study we have found comparing professionals in disability support with other groups was the study mentioned earlier by Patka, Keys, Henry and McDonald (2013) of attitudes in Pakistan. Interestingly, the study found less favourable attitudes on all four sub-scales for the disability workers than the general population.…”

Attitudes of health care professionals toward people with intellectual disability: a comparison with the general population

“…Although some studies had previously reported that professionals in the field of ID displayed more positive attitudes overall in comparison with other groups (Patka et al . ; Yazbeck et al . ), others identified significant group differences only on specific subscales (Henry et al .…”

Attitudes towards people with physical or intellectual disabilities among nursing, social work and medical students

“…In general, when examined in relation to findings from other studies, undergraduate students in Greece exhibit comparable scores in the Empowerment subscale, lower scores on the Exclusion subscale (meaning that they have more inclusive attitudes), higher score on the Sheltering subscale (an indication of more negative attitudes) and comparable scores in the Similarity subscale. When differences in the scores do exist, studies conducted in the Netherlands, the UK, Canada and the USA usually report more positive attitudes (Benomir et al., ; Henry et al., ; Horner‐Johnson et al., ; Ouellette‐Kuntz et al., ; Sheridan & Scior, ; Ten Klooster et al., ), whereas studies from countries such as Libya (Benomir et al., ) and Pakistan (Patka, Keys, Henry, & McDonald, ) report more negative attitudes. Scores in Greece are also comparable to those reported for Israel (Schwartz & Armony‐Sivan, ), Japan (Horner‐Johnson et al., , ) and Hong Kong (Scior, Kan, McLoughlin, & Sheridan, ) with the exception of more positive attitudes in Greece in relation to the Exclusion and Sheltering subscales.…”

“…However, nursing students (TEI of and comparable scores in the Similarity subscale. When differences in the scores do exist, studies conducted in the Netherlands, the UK, Canada and the USA usually report more positive attitudes (Benomir et al, 2016;Henry et al, 1996;Horner-Johnson et al, 2015;Ouellette-Kuntz et al, 2012;Sheridan & Scior, 2013;Ten Klooster et al, 2009), whereas studies from countries such as Libya (Benomir et al, 2016) and Pakistan (Patka, Keys, Henry, & McDonald, 2013) report more negative attitudes. Scores in Greece are also comparable to those reported for Israel (Schwartz & Armony-Sivan, 2001), Japan (Horner-Johnson et al, 2002 and Hong Kong (Scior, Kan, McLoughlin, & Sheridan, 2010) with the exception of more positive attitudes in Greece in relation to the Exclusion and Sheltering subscales.…”