Attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review

Despite extensive literature on attitudes towards people with ­disabilities, literature on attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities is less extensive. To further this research and to better understand attitudes towards this group, a systematic review of the literature on attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities was conducted, based on the Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases. Sixty-one articles met the inclusion criteria. Most of these studies sought to understand the attitudes of a general population towards people with intellectual disabilities using questionnaires; however, there was a lack of uniformity among them with regards to measurement instruments. While the results of these previous studies indicated positive attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities, they were inconclusive regarding gender, age, and other socio-demographic variables. The quality of contact with people with intellectual disabilities was shown to be a determining variable.