Adolescent attitude towards disability

Abstract

The objective of this project is to evaluate attitudes towards physical and cognitive disability with a sample of 145 adolescents from the commune of Puente Alto, in Santiago, Chile, in order to determine whether the attitudes that are present at this age are a factor that negatively influences the inclusion of people with disabilities. For this purpose, an instrument was validated that considers the incorporation of items that measure the different attitudinal components (cognitive, affective and tendential) that make up the attitude towards disability, both physical and intellectual. The instrument consisted of 36 items after content validation and measurement of internal consistency reliability in order to have the same proportion of items. Among the attitudinal components, 12 were considered for each attitudinal component, including 6 items for physical disability and 6 for cognitive disability. Thus, the final instrument is configured with the same number of items for each component. After the validation and application of the instrument, it was possible to conclude that there is a degree of consistency among the three components that converge in a general positive directionality, with highly positive intensity and stability in the attitude of adolescents towards disability. This affirmation is supported by the reliability index that the instrument possesses with an Alpha value of 0.869, proving to be a reliable measuring instrument since it is close to the expected score which is 1.