The effect of social contact on college students’ attitudes toward severely handicapped students and their educational integration

Abstract

Research on integration suggests that the major benefit of educational integrated programmes is the facilitation of intergroup contact between mentally handicapped and non-handicapped students. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of different amounts of social contact with severely handicapped students on attitudes and emotional reactions of college students towards such students and their integration into mainstream education. The study was carried out in a tertiary college which has a link programme with a local school for pupils with severe learning difficulties. The results indicated that those participants who had social contact with severely handicapped students held more favourable attitudes and emotional reactions toward such students than did those who had no social contact with this group. The study concludes that the educational integration programmes can positively modify attitudes and emotional reactions of college students towards severely handicapped students. However, in order to implement an effective link or integration programme and to foster attitudes more favourable towards severely handicapped students, the study recommends that more opportunities for intergroup contact and social interaction between non-handicapped and handicapped students need to be provided.