Rehabilitation Counseling Students' Attitudes Toward People with Disabilities in Three Social Contexts

This article examined factors influencing rehabilitation counseling students' attitudes toward people with disabilities in three social contexts, using a conjoint analysis design. A total of 98 graduate students participated in this study. A conjoint measurement of 38 cards (representing people with varying disability type, gender, ethnicity, age, education, and employment status) was used. The authors found that (a) disability-related factors were heavily involved in the preference-making process, (b) attitude or preference formation was also significantly affected by other client characteristics unrelated to disability, and (c) factors influencing attitude/preference formation were similar across the three social contexts. Conjoint analysis could increase our ability to understand factors contributing to the formation of attitudes/preferences in multiple social contexts.