Attributions of the social acceptance and integration of children with mild intellectual disability

One hundred and fifty regular class grade six and seven children responded to a magnitude scale instrument after viewing a video depicting a teacher interviewing a student playing the role of a target child with a mild intellectual disability. The study was conducted in two schools, one traditional, the other progressive. Subjects (male and female) were randomly exposed to one of two teacher attitude conditions (positive or neutral) and one of two child attitude conditions (confident or non-confident). The social acceptance of a child with a mild intellectual disability was seen to be dependent upon an interaction reflected in the school attended, the teacher's attitude and the regular class children's gender. Similarly, acceptance of integration was dependent upon the school attended, the teacher's attitude and the target child's attitude. These interactions highlight the importance of the school factor and the teacher's attitude on regular class peers' attributions of children with a mild intellectual disability. Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for the success of current integration policies.