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Children's attitudes toward peers with disabilities: the Israeli perspective
Author(s) -
Tirosh Emanuel,
Schanin Michael,
Reiter Shunit
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
developmental medicine and child neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.658
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1469-8749
pISSN - 0012-1622
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1997.tb07548.x
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , psychology , developmental psychology , scale (ratio) , cognition , clinical psychology , psychiatry , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Attitudes toward peers with disabilities were compared in two groups of elementary school children, Israeli (2845 children) and Canadian (1831 children), using the Chedoke‐McMaster Attitudes Toward Children with Handicaps (CATCH) scale. Israeli children expressed significantly more positive general attitudes (P=0.0001). The more favourable attitudes were seen in both areas evaluated by the CATCH, the cognitive and the affective‐behavioural. In both groups, children who had had previous experience with a disabled person expressed more positive attitudes (P=0.001). An effect of gender was seen in the Canadian but not in the Israeli children. Cultural factors appear to play a role in modelling children's attitudes toward their disabled peers and therefore should be considered before educational programmes are implemented.