The relationship of inclusive climate and peers' attitude on children with disabilities in China: A mediating role of empathy

Objective

Peer attitude towards children with disabilities can significantly impact on the successful implementation of inclusive education. The current study examined the attitude of Chinese students toward peers with disabilities in relation to inclusive climate and empathy.

Method

A total of 392 typically developing students (aging from 10 to 17 years old, with average age of 12.7) in primary and middle schools participated in the study by reporting the Inclusive Climate Scale, Peers Attitude to Students with Disabilities Scale, and Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale.

Results

We found that students held a neutral attitude to peers with disabilities, and girls were more acceptable than boys. There were positive relationships among inclusive climate, empathy and attitude to classmates with disabilities. The mediation analysis showed that empathy played a partial mediation role between inclusive climate and the peers' attitude towards children with disabilities.

Conclusion

Implications for improving students' attitude on peers with disabilities were discussed in the paper.

“He Can't Really Play”: An Ethnographic Study of Sibling Acceptance and Interaction

This article reports the findings of a case study of sibling interaction between a young man with Down syndrome and his three brothers. The case study was conducted as part of a larger study of the social relationships of 10 students with moderate to severe disabilities. Data were collected by ethnographic interviews with family members and key personnel in the student's school and community, and by participant observation of a range of home, school, and community activities. Data from the case study of sibling relationships are compared to data on the target student's interactions with nonfamily peers. Findings indicate that, within the family context, a range of sibling roles and of activities for the target student seemed to compensate for the target student's limited participation in sibling play activities. Outside of the family, the need for peer facilitation and advocacy was essential for the target student to be included successfully. The discussion offers a consideration of how schools can foster a sense of belonging that will encourage peer accommodations without creating unrealistic demands on students, both with and without disabilities.

High School Students Attitudes about and Recommendations for Their Peers with Significant Disabilities

The present study addresses the impact that placement and service models have had on nondisabled high school student attitudes. Negative attitudes have been a frequently identified barrier to participation, interactions and acceptance. 1413 typical students from two high schools, one inclusive and one traditional self-contained, were surveyed regarding their attitudes toward peers with disabilities and their recommendations for inclusive education. Results suggest that experiences in school significantly impact students' recommendations about the implementation of inclusive education.

Self-Prompted Communication Book Use to Increase Social Interaction among High School Students

This investigation examined the effects of self-prompted communication book training provided by peers on the conversational initiations of four high school students with extensive support needs. The intervention was associated with increases in participants' appropriate initiations and general education conversational partners' corresponding responses. The self-prompting strategy also was associated with increases in conversational topics discussed and decreases in inappropriate initiations by participants. In addition, interviews conducted postintervention generally indicated that participants believed they had (a) met their social goals to increase their interactions with their general education peers and (b) made more friends at school. Implications of findings are discussed and suggestions made for future programmatic efforts.

From Enrollment to Membership: “Belonging” in Middle and High School Classes

This study examined the meaning of “belonging” or membership in four secondary level general education classes. One or two students with moderate or severe disabilities were enrolled in each of these classes. Participant observations and interviews were used to gain an understanding of participation and membership from the perspectives of students without disabilities who attended these classes. Findings indicated that student membership depends on affiliation with a subgroup of peers within the class. General class participation and interactions influenced an individual's status within the group, but were not enough to create member status. General education students also reported taking active steps when they joined a class to get connected with a subgroup. In these classes, only two students with disabilities connected with subgroups and were, therefore, viewed as members. Considerations are offered for promoting classroom membership for students with moderate or severe disabilities.

Parents' Facilitation of Friendships between Their Children with a Disability and Friends without a Disability

This article is concerned with parental facilitation of friendships between children with a disability and peers without a disability. Previous research on typical children has pointed out that parent facilitation has enabled them to establish a more active social life. We use Schaffner and Buswell's facilitation framework (i.e., finding opportunities, making interpretations, and making accommodations) to organize the grounded strategies used by four Hispanic families, all of whom have a son or daughter with a disability who is experiencing a successful friendship with a peer without a disability. Data collection involved 13 semistructured group and individual interviews, with 31 respondents, including parents, children/youth with and without disabilities, teachers, and other family members. Evidence from these interviews shows that the selected families, particularly mothers, have actively facilitated friendships most frequently by finding opportunities (which always involved some level of interpretation and accommodation). They also generally facilitated friendships by exposing their children to a wide range of potential friends, rather than prioritizing a relationship with a specific person. Of the parents of children without a disability, two mothers, who were also service providers for the individuals with disabilities, specifically facilitated a friendship between the individual and their own son or daughter. The discussion highlights key issues for future research.

Placement along the Continuum of Services and its Impact on Students' Social Relationships

To better understand the conditions facilitating social relationships, we studied the impact of educational placement on the social life of students with severe disabilities. Several indicator variables were used to assess students' social relationships, including measures of social contacts, social support behaviors, and friendship networks. Placement at two points along the continuum of services—general education and self-contained classrooms—constituted the independent variables under study. Two matched groups of students with severe disabilities, one from each placement type, served as participants. The results from direct observation and interviews indicated that: (a) students placed in general education had higher levels of social contact with peers without disabilities; (b) students in general education received higher levels of social support from others, as well as provided higher levels of social support; and (c) those students had substantially larger friendship networks composed primarily of peers without disabilities. Implications regarding the impact of the continuum of services on students' social lives are discussed, along with general issues relating to the development and maintenance of social relationships.

Differences between High School Students Who Do and Do Not Volunteer to Participate in a Peer Interaction Program

We examined the differences between two groups of general education high school students: Those who volunteered to participate in a peer buddy program designed to increase their social interactions with their peers with severe disabilities ( n = 30), and those who chose not to volunteer ( n = 30). Differences were examined using the Social Distance Questionnaire for Attitudes of High School Students Toward Handicapped Persons. Analyses indicated that, at pre-test, peer buddies reported significantly greater willingness to interact with people with severe disabilities and more previous contact with these individuals than did nonvolunteers. There were no differences between the scores of the groups on knowledge of disability or affect toward persons with disabilities. After one semester of enrollment in the program, social willingness, knowledge, and contact scores of peer buddies increased significantly, whereas the scores of nonvolunteers remained the same as at the pre-test. In addition, students' self-reported previous contact with individuals with disabilities positively correlated with their scores indicating their social willingness to interact with their peers with disabilities. Implications of the study are discussed with respect to benefits of and recommendations for peer interaction programs.

Changing attitudes toward disabilities through unified sports

A cognitive/affective/behavioral intervention was implemented to change attitudes of college students towards individuals with disabilities. College swim team members were randomly assigned to intervention (N  =  16), and no-intervention control groups (N  =  17), with intervention group students and 8 Special Olympics swimmers working together to pursue swimming-related goals in 4 sessions over a 6-week period. Results indicated that on a revision of the Symons, Fish, McGuigan, Fox, and Akl (2012) attitudes inventory, the intervention group participants displayed significant increases in positive attitudes from pre- to posttest, whereas the control group participants did not. Written participant comments corroborated this improvement. A key element in the improved attitudes was the increased comfort level experienced by the college swimmers in their interactions with the Special Olympics swimmers.

Effects of short-term disability awareness training on attitudes of adolescent schoolboys toward persons with a disability

BACKGROUND

Schoolboys (N = 156, M age = 13 years) participated in a disability awareness training program that included guest speakers (athletes from the Paralympics and the Special Olympics), a documentary about people with a disability, a disability simulation activity, and factual information about different disabilities.

METHOD

Participants were allocated to a training program or a control condition. Subsequently, control participants completed the training program. Attitudes toward disability were measured by the Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes Towards Children With Handicaps (CATCH) Scale and the scale from the "Just Like You" disability awareness intervention, before and after training. Results Training improved attitude scores, and gains were retained at one-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Disability awareness training that delivered relevant information by involving guest speakers with a disability, included documentary evidence about the lives of people with a disability, and included interactive discussion, was successful. CATCH and "Just Like You" are useful tools for measuring self-reported attitudes about disability.

An application of the theory of planned behavior to examine the impact of classroom inclusion on elementary school students

Classroom inclusion serves as the most discussed service delivery model in the debate over the most appropriate way to provide education for students with disabilities. Integrating students with disabilities with nondisabled peers may increase attitudes of acceptance, but the literature also indicates that placement alone does not yield an increase in interaction between these two groups of peers (Brinker & Thorpe, 1986; Fryexe & Kennedy, 1995; Kennedy, Shulka, & Fryxell, 1997). This study investigated the impact of classroom inclusion on nondisabled students. Using survey research methods and guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (Aizen, I. [1985]. From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckman [Eds.], Action-control: From cognition to behavior [pp. 11-39]. Heidelberg: Springer), 593 responses were obtained from a convenience sample of 936 third, fourth, and fifth grade students and their parents from 52 classrooms spread across six different schools. Survey results were also collected from these students' parents and their teachers and used to add a richer depth to the data analysis. Implications for policy and practice are drawn. Limitations and recommendations for future research are also indicated.

The Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale: reliability, known groups validity, and negativity of elementary school-age children's attitudes

Psychometric properties of the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter (PATCS) scale (Langevin, M., & Hagler, P. (2004). Development of a scale to measure peer attitudes toward children who stutter. In A.K. Bothe (Ed.), Evidence-based treatment of stuttering: empirical bases and clinical applications (pp. 139-171). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.) and the extent to which peer attitudes are negative were re-examined. Results show that internal consistency was .97 and test-retest reliability was .85. In a known groups analysis participants who had contact with someone who stutters had statistically significant higher mean scores (more positive attitudes) than those who had not had contact. Nonsignificant findings for gender and grade call into question the usefulness of these variables as discriminators in future tests of known groups validity of peer attitudes toward children who stutter. Approximately one-fifth of participants had PATCS scores that were somewhat to very negative. These findings support calls for school-based education about stuttering.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

The reader will be able to: (1) summarize the social impacts of stuttering on school-age children who stutter, (2) describe the known groups method to test construct validity, (3) evaluate the psychometric properties of the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale, and (4) provide information about the proportion of students who appear to hold negative attitudes toward children who stutter.

Social inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities in a recreational setting

The social acceptance of children with and without intellectual disabilities was examined in an inclusive, summer recreational program. Participants were 67 children entering Grades 3 through 6, of which 29 were identified as having a mild intellectual disability. Children were recruited from economically and racially diverse urban school districts. Results showed that children with and without intellectual disabilities were equally accepted by their peers. Specifically, 95% of children without intellectual disabilities indicated that they liked to "hang out with" at least 1 child with an intellectual disability. Results also indicated that the majority of children without intellectual disabilities made at least 1 new friend with another child with an intellectual disability. The features of recreational programming that promote social inclusion are discussed.

Attitudes of children towards peers with acquired brain injury (ABI)

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

Children with acquired brain injury (ABI) can experience severe problems in establishing peer relationships. The attitudes peers hold toward a child with an ABI can significantly impact on their willingness to befriend. The present work sought to investigate the attitudes peers hold toward a fictional child with ABI.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Fifty children from a primary school were compared against a similar number from a secondary school. Gender was evenly split across both groups. A vignette describing a young boy acquiring a brain injury, and his subsequent change in behaviour, was presented to the children. The Friendship Activity Scale (FAS) was then used to judge how likely the children were to befriend the fictional character.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Results showed a statistically significant interaction between gender and age [F(1, 96) 6.285, p = 0.014] with older males expressing more positive attitudes than younger males.

CONCLUSION

The study suggests that children with ABI are more likely to experience negative attitudes in primary school, and concludes in calling for additional research to more fully explore the social experience of children with ABI.

Social relationships and friendships of children with developmental disabilities: implications for inclusive settings. A systematic review

BACKGROUND

The engagement of children with developmental disabilities (DD) in social relationships with typically developing peers has become increasingly important as inclusive practices have become more the norm than the exception. This paper provides an overview of the research on social relationships between these two groups.

METHOD

Studies were included if they provided a naturalistic examination of the relationships between children with DD (from the age of 3 years to school exit) and peers they have met in school or in age-appropriate educational settings.

RESULTS

A total of 36 studies are reviewed, providing a framework for analysis of the relevant research, with a particular focus on implications for inclusive settings. Three specific areas are addressed: (a) features of social relationships; (b) types of social relationships and roles assumed by the individuals involved; and (c) the existence and nature of friendship within these relationships.

CONCLUSION

Research on relationships between children with DD and their peers in inclusive settings is patchy, limited in context, and non-linear in its development. Directions for future research are discussed, together with a range of methodological issues that should be considered.