Investigating attitudes of University of Malta students towards individuals with intellectual disability

Abstract

The theoretical construct of attitudes has gained much popularity in research about intellectual disability. People with an intellectual disability tend to face multiple societal challenges and stigma due to negative attitudes of the public (Wilson, & Scior, 2015). Therefore attitudes of students at the University of Malta towards people with intellectual disability were examined. A quantitative methodology was applied to gather and analyse the data. Through the use of the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale (MAS) — constructed from the three components of attitudes, i.e., affects, cognitions and behaviours — attitudes were determined and compared to potential influential factors. These factors consisted of (a) gender, (b) age group, (c) previous knowledge, (d) acquaintance and (e) frequent contact. The MAS along with the demographic questions were randomly and conveniently distributed which gathered a total amount of 93 responses from participants varying between the ages of 18 - 56. Results showed that the attitudes of the participants were mostly positively attributed. However, results identified that there were no significant correlations between attitudes and the demographic factors tested. While the results of this study further support the relevance of a multidimensional approach towards attitudes, they also suggest that the demographic questions posited along with the MAS scale need to be adjusted to gather more in-depth information.