Children's Experience With, Knowledge of, and Attitude Toward Disabled Persons

Abstract

Measures to assess children's knowledge about and affective attitudes toward disabled persons were developed and administered to 367 elementary school children. Children's knowledge increased with age but was unrelated to sex or previous experience with disabled persons. In contrast, children's social-distance ratings were 'This study was part of the author's doctoral dissertation and was funded by a grant from the American Institutes for Research. unrelated to age but did vary with previous experience and sex. Children with more experience and girls expressed greater willingness to interact with disabled peers. The potential usefulness of the knowledge and social-distance scales as outcome measures for disability-awareness programs is discussed.