Effects of short-term awareness interventions on children's attitudes toward peers with a disability

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of two awareness activities on children's attitudes towards peers with a disability. The Children's Attitudes towards Peers with Disability scale including cognitive, behavioral and emotional subscales was administered before and after two types of short-term interventions. The first included 75 children from grades 7-9, who actively participated in the workshop simulating movement activities. The second intervention included 121 students of the 10th grade, who observed their peers participating in a wheelchair-basketball activity together with elite wheelchair-basketball players. Results indicated significant effects in the cognitive and behavioral domains. Post-test findings confirmed that intervention bridged the difference in the cognitive domain observed between those with and without previous contact at pretest.