Attitudes of Students of Social Sciences and Humanities towards People with Physical Disabilities (MAS-PL).

Dorota Tomczyszyn,Adam Szepeluk,Anna Pańczuk

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031544

Abstract

Negative social attitudes towards people with disabilities are a serious barrier to their social, professional, and cultural functioning. Due to negative perception, disabled individuals are often homebound. The present study was an attempt to compare declared attitudes with the results of other studies using the Polish version of an international assessment tool. The aim was to verify the MAS-PL tool and to analyse the attitudes of students of social sciences and humanities towards people with physical disabilities. An additional aim was to compare declared attitudes with the results of other studies using the Polish version of an international assessment tool for students of medicine and health sciences. In total, 540 students were surveyed using the Polish adaptation of the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale towards Persons with Disabilities (MAS-PL). The study confirmed the high reliability of the MAS-PL Scale. The mean global score of the scale was 82.79. There were no significant differences in the global MAS-PL score depending on respondents’ sex; however, an effect of this variable on the subscales was found. The surveyed females exhibited more positive attitudes in terms of the cognitive and behavioural components, whereas the males showed more positive attitudes in the affective subscale. There was no significant impact of the place of residence, age, and majors. Along with the year of studies, the intensity of the global and affective scale slightly increased. The surveyed students of social sciences and humanities exhibited similar attitudes towards people with physical disabilities to those declared by Polish students of medical and health sciences surveyed by Radlińska et al. The authors recommend implementation of didactic classes, projects, and activities at the stage of planning and creation of student education programs to promote tolerance towards disabled people.

Highlights

There are over one billion people with disabilities in the world, and this number is growing [1]
The present study assessed the reliability of the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale towards Persons with Disabilities (MAS-PL) scale in a group of Polish students of social sciences and humanities
The present study revealed a significant variation with regard to the affective component, in which the males exhibited more positive attitudes

Summary

Introduction

There are over one billion people with disabilities in the world (approx. 15% of the world’s population), and this number is growing [1]. There are over one billion people with disabilities in the world In Poland, people with disabilities accounted for 12.2% of the country’s population (almost 4.7 million), according to the last. Due to the wide conceptual scope of the disability term, one universal definition of disability in the literature and in legal acts has never been developed. This concept cannot be clearly and defined but has undergone a noticeable evolution over the years. In. European Union countries, several different terms are often used to define ‘disability,’ even in one country, and each country has its own disability assessment system [3].

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion