Korean and American College Students Attitudes Towards Intellectual Disabilities
Start Date
April 2020
End Date
April 2020
Major Field of Study
Psychology
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Veronica Fruiht, PhD
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
People's attitudes towards intellectual disabilities can be altered through culture and interactions with people with disabilities. For instance, children who self-reported having more contact with people with disabilities tended to have more positive attitudes towards disabilities (Armstrong et al., 2016). Unfortunately, in collectivist communities like South Korea, it is less likely that children with disabilities to be integrated into the family and community outings (Westbrook & Legge, 1993) and educators hesitate to discuss children’s struggles with parents due to the stigma (Kayama et al., 2017). Therefore, people in these cultures have less exposure to people with disabilities which may, in turn, affect attitudes. The goal of the present study is to capture the different attitudes towards people with disabilities held by people in American and Korean culture. Thirty participants were recruited via email from university courses and snowball sampling. Half of the participants were American females and half were Korean females; all were between the ages of 20 and 30. The Self-Reported Contact With People With Disabilities (Armstrong et al., 2016) and the Modern and Classical Attitudes Scales Towards People With Intellectual Disabilities (Akrami et al., 2006) were used to measure contact with and attitudes toward people with disabilities. Results are expected to find that people in the US will have more positive attitudes towards people with disabilities compared to those in South Korea and that people who have a disabled family member will have a positive attitude towards people with disabilities compared to those who don’t have a disabled family member. These results show how culture and our interactions with people with intellectual disabilities contribute to our attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities and have implications for reducing stigma against disability cross-culturally.
Korean and American College Students Attitudes Towards Intellectual Disabilities
People's attitudes towards intellectual disabilities can be altered through culture and interactions with people with disabilities. For instance, children who self-reported having more contact with people with disabilities tended to have more positive attitudes towards disabilities (Armstrong et al., 2016). Unfortunately, in collectivist communities like South Korea, it is less likely that children with disabilities to be integrated into the family and community outings (Westbrook & Legge, 1993) and educators hesitate to discuss children’s struggles with parents due to the stigma (Kayama et al., 2017). Therefore, people in these cultures have less exposure to people with disabilities which may, in turn, affect attitudes. The goal of the present study is to capture the different attitudes towards people with disabilities held by people in American and Korean culture. Thirty participants were recruited via email from university courses and snowball sampling. Half of the participants were American females and half were Korean females; all were between the ages of 20 and 30. The Self-Reported Contact With People With Disabilities (Armstrong et al., 2016) and the Modern and Classical Attitudes Scales Towards People With Intellectual Disabilities (Akrami et al., 2006) were used to measure contact with and attitudes toward people with disabilities. Results are expected to find that people in the US will have more positive attitudes towards people with disabilities compared to those in South Korea and that people who have a disabled family member will have a positive attitude towards people with disabilities compared to those who don’t have a disabled family member. These results show how culture and our interactions with people with intellectual disabilities contribute to our attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities and have implications for reducing stigma against disability cross-culturally.
Comments
This presentation was accepted for the Scholarly and Creative Works Conference at Dominican University of California. The Conference was canceled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic