Effects of an Adapted Sports Day on Physical Education Students’ Attitudes Towards Peers with Disabilities

This study analysed the impact on Physical Education students of an intervention based on direct contact and multicomponent inclusive activities, with regard to their attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test measures was used on a sample of 144 students from a school in the province of Castellón (Spain), divided into three groups: control, direct contact intervention, and multicomponent intervention (introductory awareness session, participation in adapted activities alongside direct contact and guided reflection). Following the administration of the CAIPE-R questionnaire, the results showed that girls exhibited more favourable attitudes towards inclusion than boys at all stages, although the differences were statistically significant only for general inclusive attitudes. Furthermore, the ‘not competitive’ group reported a more positive initial attitude, whilst the ‘very competitive’ group scored lower, but with no significant differences. On the other hand, at post-test, both the direct contact and multicomponent intervention groups showed significantly more favourable general and specific attitudes towards inclusion than the control group, whereas no significant differences were observed between the two intervention groups. Thus, the quasi-experimental design and the allocation of different school years to the intervention conditions preclude conclusions regarding the causal superiority of the multicomponent inclusive approach over the direct contact intervention alone.