Korean students??? differential attitudes toward people with disabilities: an acculturation perspective

Introduction The introduction of cross-cultural research in rehabilitation literature is intended to provide, in a cultural context, insight into how different people of different cultural backgrounds view disabilities. Although there have been cross-cultural studies focusing on attitudes toward people with disabilities already, few studies have attempted from an acculturation perspective to examine a mediating variable of a type of disability with a relatively common cultural heritage (e.g., generation effects). Therefore, this study is specifically designed to examine the effects of an acculturation influencing attitudes toward people with disabilities. This study replicates the previous study done by Chan and his associates (1988) to examine the effects of perception of a type of disability (i.e., physical versus mental disabilities), but with two student samples, Korean-American and Korean, as a culture mediating variable. Materials and method Participants A total of 359 Korean and Korean-American undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. The Scale of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons (SADP), with a measure of attitudes toward people with mental disabilities and another of attitudes toward people with physical disabilities, was used. Subsequently, the participants were divided into four groups, depending on their nationality and types of disability measured by the SADP. The groups and number of study participants were as follows: Korean-American students, attitudes towards mental disabilities (68); Korean-American students, attitudes towards physical disabilities (69); Korean students, attitudes towards mental disabilities (114); and Korean students, attitudes towards physical disabilities (108). Table 1 shows the demographic variables of the participants.Table 1: . Demographics by gender, age, education level and contact variableInstrument The original SADP (Antonak, 1982) was used in this study. The SADP consists of a 24-item six-point Likert-type scale (the points are – 3, – 2, – 1, 1, 2, 3, where – 3 is Disagree very much and 3 is Agree very much), measuring general attitudes toward people with disabilities. A Korean version of the SADP was developed through a backward translation. To test the translation equivalence, the original SADP was first translated from English to Korean by a bilingual translator then back translated from Korean to English by an independent bilingual translator. The two versions of SADP are then compared to discern translation equivalence. The 24 items of SADP were adequately translated to Korean without losing any meaning. However, ‘People with disabilities’ replaced the term ‘disabled persons’. Data analysis The total summated scores on the SADP were examined in separate ANOVAs using a 2 (cultures) × 2 (disabilities) design with post-hoc comparison. The relationship between attitudes and demographic variables including age, gender, years of education, and previous contact were examined with correlation and t-tests. Results This study examined the main effects of the participants’ cultures along with their attitudes toward the two types of disability: mental and physical. First, 2-way ANOVAs were performed to examine attitudinal differences of the two groups in terms of the types of disability. The results indicated that there were the main effects of the subject groups and the types of disability:F (2,357) = 56.96, P < 0.001; also significant interactions between the subject groups and the types of disability:F (1,358) = 21.50, P < 0.0001. After the 2-way ANOVAs, t-tests were performed to verify mean group differences between the two types of disability. There was no between-group difference with SADP physical disability:M = 115.20, SD=15.73 for Korean-American students and M = 111.52, SD = 12.14 for Korean students. However, for SADP mental disability, a significant between-group difference was found, with Korean-American students scoring higher:M = 110.66, SD = 15.15 versus M = 93.59, SD = 11.40. In terms of physical disability and mental disability attitudinal comparison, only the Korean student group showed favourable attitudes toward people with physical disabilities compared with those with mental disabilities. However, no significant within-group difference in terms of types of disability was found in the Korean-American sample. Table 2 shows mean scores in each group by disability types.Table 2: . Mean group differencesWith regard to demographic variables, the graduate students were found to have more favourable attitudes toward people with disabilities than undergraduate students, disregarding their places of birth or which countries they were brought up in:t (357) = – 3.69, P < 0.0001. Previous contacts with persons with disabilities were also found to have meaningful implications for attitudinal measures, resulting in more positive attitudes of the students who reported a contact:t (357) = 4.69, P < 0.0001. Positive attitudes toward people with disabilities were influenced by both higher education and previous contacts. Table 3 indicates the mean and SD of education and contact variables.Table 3: . Mean and SD of education variable and contact variableIn addition to these findings, follow-up comparisons revealed no gender difference across all groups:F (1,358) = 0.004, P < 0.952; and no interaction was found:F (3,356) = 0.199, P < 0.897. Discussion The results of this study indicate that Korean students possess consistent Asian values that favour people with physical disabilities over those with mental disabilities, as reported in the literature (e.g. Jacques et al., 1973; Yuker and Block, 1986; Chan et al., 1988). However, it is indicated that in Korean-American students, mental and physical disabilities are rated with no significant differences. Only a mental disability was found to have a significant group difference in their attitude measures. That is, Korean-American students showed more favourable attitudes toward people with mental disabilities than their counterparts, Korean students. One possible explanation is that an acculturation process plays an important role affecting attitudes toward people with disabilities, as Tseng (1972) indicated. In his early work, Tseng (1972) examined Asian students’ attitudes toward people with disabilities and found that the longer the Asian students stayed in America, the more positive their attitudes were, suggesting a modern cultural mediation affecting attitudes toward people with disabilities. Compared to the Korean-American students, Korean students were found to have less favourable attitudes toward people with mental disabilities. High stigmatization on mental disabilities may be explained by a disability classification system that has operated in Korea, where people with mental disabilities have not been classified legally as persons with disabilities. In fact, people with mental disabilities are more likely to be institutionalized, resulting in institution-induced mental stigma in Korean culture. A common derogatory term, Michin (mad), is an adjective used to describe a person with a psychiatric problem and often tends to be used as an insulting remark, even against a person without a disability. In this respect, commonly used language perpetrates this stigmatized role, contributing to a source of societal negative attitudes toward people with mental disabilities. Another explanation could be the shamanistic beliefs held by most Asians that mental illness is a punishment for sins (Livneh, 1991). Such deep-rooted beliefs carry over from ancient times to the present day. Any attempt at change must first be cognizant of the fact that since attitudes are learned and conditioned over many years, any quick fix is futile at best. To change this deep-rooted attitude will take time and efforts through education of the public and advocacy for persons with disabilities. Making contacts with persons with disabilities in a meaningful way could also bring positive attitudes, as reported by the present study and other studies (Chan et al., 1988; Barrett and Pullo, 1993; Gething, 1993; Yuker, 1994). The more education that one has, the more positive is one's attitude. The results concurred with findings in most attitude research (Livneh, 1991). No gender difference was found in this study. In fact, inconsistent results on gender differences have been reported throughout the literature. Olkin and Howson (1994) and Stovall and Sedlacek (1983) found more women than men holding positive attitudes toward people with disabilities, while Chan et al. (1988) and Yuker and Block (1986) reported that no relationship to gender has been found. With regard to the gender relationship observed in this study, women are relatively under-represented in university settings in Korea, as well as in other Asian countries. Therefore, women in university or college settings could be assumed to hold somewhat different attitudes toward people with disabilities, which may differ from those of the general public in Korean culture.