Rehabilitation Counseling Students' Attitudes Toward People with Disabilities in Three Social Contexts

Abstract

This article examined factors influencing rehabilitation counseling students' attitudes toward people with disabilities in three social contexts, using a conjoint analysis design. A total of 98 graduate students participated in this study. A conjoint measurement of 38 cards (representing people with varying disability type, gender, ethnicity, age, education, and employment status) was used. The authors found that (a) disability-related factors were heavily involved in the preference-making process, (b) attitude or preference formation was also significantly affected by other client characteristics unrelated to disability, and (c) factors influencing attitude/preference formation were similar across the three social contexts. Conjoint analysis could increase our ability to understand factors contributing to the formation of attitudes/preferences in multiple social contexts.