Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the direction and intensity of high school graduates’ attitudes towards social integration of persons with intellectual disability and examine correlation between certain characteristics of the subjects and their attitudes. The sample consisted of 95 high school graduates from ˮDušan Vasiljevˮ secondary school in Kikinda. The direction and intensity of attitudes was examined by the Community Living Attitudes Scale – Mental Retardation Form (CLAS-MR; Henry, Keys, Jopp, & Balcazar, 1996), while the data related to race, gender, previous experience of contact with people with disabilities and interests of career dealing with this population were obtained through the questionnaire for testing socio-demographic variables constructed for this survey.The results showed that the attitudes of graduates towards social integration of people with intellectual disability are positive on the scale in general, and three of the four domains of the applied instrument. Our respondents expressed a positive attitude towards the empowerment of these people, their involvement in the community's activities and experiencing these people to themselves. The respondents expressed a negative attitude through the perceived need of people with intellectual disabilities to be placed in protected living and working conditions, beyond the wider community. Connection between the attitudes to gender, previous experience of contact, close contact with people with disabilities and interest for professional work with persons with disabilities was not established.Bearing in mind the presumption about the influence of attitudes towards the behavior of a particular social group, the knowledge of attitudes and their determinants in young people towards this population, on the threshold of their entry into adulthood, can provide useful guidance for planning and implementing practical procedures with the aim of a higher quality integration of people with intellectual disabilities into the community in the future.
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