Professional and Personal Attitudes of Physiotherapy Students Toward Disabled Persons

Abstract

Form A of the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons (ATDP-A) scale was used to discover whether physiotherapy students distinguish between personal and professional attitudes toward people with disabilities. Forty fourth-year students successively completed two copies of the ATDP-A scale, one with their personal views and one with their professional views. A two-tailed t-test for correlated samples showed that the mean professional score was significantly greater (p < 0.05) than the mean personal score. Results are discussed in terms of inconsistencies in the research literature as well as implications for physiotherapy training programmes.

Attitude of physiotherapy students in Nigeria toward persons with disability

“…5,12 The ATDP-A scale used in this study is however a valid, reliable and widely used measure in assessing attitudes of health professionals and students toward persons with disability. 5,7,14,21 Furthermore, the presentation of data on attitude based on each of the 30 ATDP-A items as against generalization based on overall score provides more insight into specific aspects of the students' attitudes. It is however important to state that the ATDP-A was developed to assess attitudes of general population and its items perhaps do not adequately tap attitudes that may be specific to students of health care professions.…”

“…3,4 The attitude of practicing physiotherapists, like other health professionals, is however often traceable to attitudes they held as students. 5,6 The acknowledged importance of physiotherapy students' attitude toward persons with disability has resulted in several studies in different countries of the world. 5,7e12 The influence of culture on attitude toward persons with disability 13e15 further necessitates these country-specific data.…”

A national survey of occupational therapy students' and physiotherapy students' attitudes to disabled people

“…The findings support those of previous studies in terms of the level and nature of contact with disabled people having a positive influence on attitudes. 1,5,13,[17][18][19] There are differences in the type of person who applies to study occupational therapy and physiotherapy. These differences were shown to influence attitudes towards, and the nature of contact with, disabled people.…”

Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale

“…The manual reports that ATDP scores have been found related to such personality constructs as low hostility, low anxiety, and positive self-concept, and related to such experiential variables as the amount and nature of contact with individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, numerous studies have used the ATDP in process and outcome studies, finding that interventions regarding attitudes toward individuals with disabilities significantly raised scores on the ATDP (Berry, 1992;Elliott & Byrd, 1983;Vargo, Vargo, & Semple, 1981). The diverse nature and sheer number of studies conducted on the ATDP have shown consistent evidence for convergent and divergent validity for the totalscale scores.…”