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

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.