Measuring Young Children’s Attitudes Toward Peers With Disabilities

Abstract

Young children with disabilities are increasingly attending inclusive early childhood programs with their typically developing peers. Within these programs, research efforts and practice have supported young children’s understanding and acceptance of peers with disabilities. However, there is limited information about the measures used to assess young children’s attitudes toward peers with disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to critically review the literature on young children’s attitudes toward peers with disabilities with an emphasis on measurement issues. Assessment instruments and the type of information that these assessments provide about the dimensions of attitudes toward peers with disabilities based on a conceptual model of attitude formation suggested by Triandis are highlighted. Implications for future research are addressed following the literature review.

Typically Developing Preschoolers’ Behavior Toward Peers With Disabilities in Inclusive Classroom Contexts

“…The current study shows the context where these children were more likely to interact with peers with disabilities (i.e., outdoors than indoors; play activities than academic activities or transitions/ routines; teacher-or child-directed activities than transitions/routines). Attitudes are associated with behaviors in complicated ways (Yu, Ostrosky, & Fowler, 2012) as represented through three interconnected dimensions: cognitive (beliefs and understanding), affective (feelings and emotional reactions), and behavioral (a predisposition to act in a certain way), which contributes to the exhibited behavior (Ajzen, 1988). A study that combines the investigation of behaviors and multiple dimensions of attitudes will provide a clearer picture of the important factors associated with the social interactions between children with and without disabilities in inclusive preschool classrooms.…”

Children's Attitudes towards Peers with Disabilities: Associations with Personal and Parental Factors

“…The cognitive dimension includes people's beliefs and understanding about others as well as their characteristics. The affective dimension includes people's feelings and emotional reactions to others (e.g., fear and anxiety), whereas the behavioural dimension refers to ‘a predisposition to act in a certain manner’ (i.e., behavioural intentions) towards others (Ajzen, ; Eagly & Chaiken, ; Triandis, ; Yu, Ostrosky, & Fowler, , p. 133). These three dimensions have been thought to be associated with one another and contribute to actual behaviours differently.…”

“…The behavioural dimension of attitudes has been defined and measured in different ways with relatively little data compared to other dimensions of attitudes. A recent review (Yu et al, ) categorized children's actual behaviour as behavioural attitudes. However, in the current study, the behavioural attitudes focus on children's willingness or intentions to include a peer with a disability, which is somewhat different from how they interact with peers with disabilities in an actual situation but closer to an antecedent of the actual behaviour than the affective dimension.…”

Acceptance of Children with Special Needs in Early Childhood Inclusive Education Programs

“…ASK-R consists of 18 questions that measure attitudes in preschool children, reflected in their affections and behaviors (Yu, Ostrosky, & Fowler, 2012). It has three response scales to describe the level of acceptance in early childhood.…”