Changing Attitudes Toward Disabilities Through Unified Sports

Changing Attitudes Toward Disabilities Through Unified Sports

Abstract

A cognitive/affective/behavioral intervention was implemented to change attitudes of college students towards individuals with disabilities. College swim team members were randomly assigned to intervention N equals sixteen, and no-intervention control groups N equals seventeen, with intervention group students and eight Special Olympics swimmers working together to pursue swimming-related goals in four sessions over a six-week period. Results indicated that on a revision of the Symons, Fish, McGuigan, Fox, and Akl attitudes inventory, the intervention group participants displayed significant increases in positive attitudes from pre- to posttest, whereas the control group participants did not. Written participant comments corroborated this improvement. A key element in the improved attitudes was the increased comfort level experienced by the college swimmers in their interactions with the Special Olympics swimmers.

Despite massive legislative efforts such as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of nineteen seventy-five and the Americans With Disabilities Act of nineteen ninety that characterized the second half of the twentieth century, research on attitudes and behavior towards individuals with disabilities still provides evidence of devaluation, stigmatization, and isolation. In educational settings, pre-existing negative biases can sabotage efforts to include children with intellectual and other developmental disabilities in general education classrooms. Without the positive support of teachers and peers, inclusion is unlikely to succeed. Moreover, even recent research demonstrates that mere exposure rarely leads to positive attitude or behavioral change, and, in fact, sometimes has the opposite effect. It is quality, not quantity, of contact that predicts positive attitudes.

Nonetheless, there is evidence from published research that successful integration of children and adults with and without disabilities is possible and beneficial.

Two thousand twelve. Attitude change is a necessary component of this integration and has been found to be most successful when two criteria are met: equal status contact, and pursuit of a common goal.

When there is equal status contact, individuals involved in the situation or event all have value and power. When two parties have equal power or equal status contact, they are more likely to witness and appreciate the competence and abilities of the other party. For example, equal status is a strong component in cooperative learning, a popular style of learning that promotes structuring positive interdependence. Cooperative learning can be demonstrated in various contexts. The context may be academic in which, for example, two or more students work on different segments of a group project. The students learn from each other and each member's contribution is essential to the end product. Nonacademic domains, such as recreational and sports programs, are also excellent venues for cooperative learning. Whether the goal is painting a community mural or winning a team athletic competition, success cannot be achieved unless each member contributes. Each person in these situations has an important, although not necessarily identical,

contribution to make in the pursuit of common goals, the important second component of successful attitude change.

The pursuit of common goals-contact that involves people participating together in order to achieve a shared purpose-is more likely to change attitudes in a positive direction than any other aspect of contact. The shared objective of arriving at the common outcome serves as a powerful force to motivate working together, creating cooperative interdependence, and facilitating positive attitude change. When all participants can make positive contributions to achieve the common goals, abilities and strengths are likely to be recognized and valued.

Attitude change can be affected by both behavioral and cognitive interventions. Equal status contact and pursuit of common goals, although primarily behavioral, also contain a cognitive component. For example, children with and without disabilities in a fifth-grade classroom involved in a cooperative learning group are interacting directly and indirectly (behavioral), but they are also observing each other, drawing conclusions about the competence of each group member, deciding with whom they might want to work, and so forth. These observations, conclusions, and decisions all involve cognitive activity, and can contribute to the development of, and change in, attitudes.

Several recent research studies in school settings have demonstrated the efficacy of an approach that combines behavioral and cognitive interventions. Krahé and Altwasser examined three different experimental interventions to improve attitudes towards the children with physical disabilities in a middle school. In one condition, a cognitive intervention challenged the students to think about disability and question the common stereotypes of disabilities. In this intervention the students talked about personal experiences, developed a definition for the word disability, discussed labeling, learned the history of treatment and mistreatment of individuals with disabilities, and discussed interacting with people with disabilities. A second condition was a cognitive-behavioral intervention. The students in this group experienced the same cognitive intervention for a shorter period of time, and received a behavioral intervention for the duration of the time. During the behavioral portion the students participated in Paralympic sports with nine athletes with physical disabilities. Equal status contact was the main focus in this portion of the intervention, with pursuit of a common goal accomplished in the playing of Paralympic games. The third condition, a control group, experienced no intervention. Krahé and Altwasser used a modified version of the Questionnaire About Attitudes Towards the Physically Disabled as a pre- and posttest measure of the students' attitudes. The results showed that the cognitive-behavioral intervention resulted in significantly greater attitude change compared to the cognitive-only intervention and the no-intervention conditions. Neither the cognitive-only intervention nor the no-intervention conditions produced significant attitude change.

Campbell, Gilmore, and Cuskelly also confirmed that combined behavioral and cognitive methods can produce a change in attitudes. They studied two hundred seventy-four student teachers as they participated in structured fieldwork experiences (behavioral) and were enrolled in a class about Down syndrome and inclusion (cognitive). Multiple measures of knowledge about, and attitudes toward, individuals with disabilities were used in a pretest/posttest design. The results demonstrated that the interventions were effective across a number of measures, with attitudes towards Down syndrome, inclusion, and other disabilities significantly more positive on the posttest than they had been on the pretest.

As Krahé and Altwasser demonstrated, one context that provides an opportunity for naturally occurring cognitive and behavioral interventions with the possibility of equal status contact is physical activity and athletic participation. Many children with intellectual and/or other developmental disabilities are included in physical education classes in schools and also participate in athletic competitions both in school and in their communities. Indeed, physical activity is recommended not only for children but also for adults with IDD, given the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle and the value of physical activity. Although historically, children and adults with IDD were excluded from sports as they were from intellectual pursuits, recognition of its value and the beginning of movements such as Paralympics and Special Olympics has encouraged athletic participation by children and adults with disabilities.

Siperstein, Parker, and Lenox. Indeed, the Special Olympics movement is both a reflection of the importance of sports, as well as a catalyst for creating environments in which persons with and without disabilities can participate together as they do in unified sports. Research by Weiss and colleagues has documented benefits of Special Olympics participation in positive self-concept for athletes. Additionally, Glidden, Bamberger, Draheim, and Kersh reported higher levels of happiness in both athletes about themselves and parents about their athletes when they were participating in sailing/kayaking competitions.

Furthermore, Özer et al. demonstrated that an integrated sports program has a positive effect not only on athletes with disabilities, but also may influence participants without disabilities. Adolescent students with and without ID either were randomly assigned to an eight-week unified soccer training programming or a control group. Results indicated that at the program's conclusion, the students with IDD displayed significant improvements in social competence as well as decreases in problem behaviors in comparison to a control group. Moreover, the attitudes of the participants without IDD were more positive toward their partners with IDD, whereas the attitudes of students in the control group did not change.

Nonetheless, obstacles remain to the inclusion of individuals with IDD in physical education classes during the school-age period, and in other sports contexts during adulthood. Townsend and Hassall demonstrated that although the majority of students in an inclusion environment in New Zealand had positive attitudes towards participating in sports with people with IDD, attitudes were less positive for males than females, and were more negative for older than younger children. Moreover, in a comprehensive review of the published literature from nineteen ninety to two thousand nine on inclusive physical education, Qi and Ha concluded that although benefits from this inclusion were frequently demonstrated, obstacles, including negative attitudes from other stakeholders, including teachers and students without disabilities, persisted.

In sum, physical activity and sports participation are important lifestyle behaviors for all individuals, those with and without disabilities. For those with disabilities, obstacles persist and prevent ready access and full inclusion in these activities. The negative attitudes of others can pose problems in granting access and implementing inclusion. Findings of previous research have demonstrated that intervention programs that utilize information (cognitive) and contact (behavioral) appear to have a significant effect on positive change in attitudes towards individuals with disabilities. Although the studies have varied in terms of subjects, procedures, and type of disability, the participants that were exposed to a cognitive and a behavioral intervention were more likely to demonstrate a positive attitude change than were those who experienced only one component or no intervention at all.

Attitudes consist of not only cognitive and behavioral dimensions, but also affective facets. This affective aspect of attitudes refers both to the general emotional valence of the attitude-arousing good or bad emotions-as well as the level of activation or arousal. For example, positive attitudes about persons with ID could incorporate a cognitive component of beliefs that they have athletic competencies, an affective component in the form of strong feelings about their being part of a team, and a behavioral component of a propensity to interact with them.

Demonstrating effectiveness of multimodal approaches to attitude change (ones that consist of cognitive, behavioral, and affective components), is consistent with the elaboration likelihood model of attitude change. This model predicts that deeper processing of the message will lead to greater and more durable changes in attitude. Petty, Haugtvedt and Smith describe the conditions that are likely to lead to deeper processing, which include personal relevance, higher motivation for processing, and positive mood.

In the current study we build upon the previous research by creating an intervention that is informed by the elaboration model of attitude change. The intervention contains cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, and utilizes interactions of equal status contact and pursuit of common goals. Whereas most of the previous research was conducted in a formal school environment, the current study is implemented outside of a formal school environment, thus expanding the nature of the relevant context. Swimming was chosen as the activity for this particular session for multiple reasons. First, swimming can be organized as a cooperative learning environment. Martino and Johnson found that cooperative learning experiences in the pool promoted more friendly interaction between high school seniors with learning disabilities and high school seniors without disabilities. Second, swimming is often a life-long sport with participation of people of all ages, and availability and engagement is year-round and global. Therefore, if results demonstrating positive attitude change are obtained, it can have applicability to many participants worldwide.

The choice of swimming also entailed pragmatic considerations, including the ready availability of both a college swim team and Special Olympics swimming participants, and an appropriate-sized pool that could accommodate weekend hours when students were not in classes. Because the college and Special Olympics swimmers already shared a mutual interest in swimming, it was likely that the pursuit of common goals would be attained. Last, competitive swimming easily accommodates participants of varying ability same activity. Relays, for example, can be completed with a wide range of ability levels. Relays, much like the cooperative learning example given earlier, require the success of all members in order for the team to be successful, thus providing equal status contact and the pursuit of a common goal.

We posed three questions in this research context: One. Can a cognitive, affective, behavioral intervention implemented in the context of a unified swimming program result in more positive attitudes of persons without disabilities towards persons with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities? Two. Do persons without disabilities report that they have benefited from this intervention, and if so, in what ways? Three. Do Special Olympics swimmers in this unified program report that they benefit from this experience, and if so, in what ways?

Method

Participants

Recruitment and selection. Potential participants included 41 members of a college varsity swim team. The study was briefly described, and the 41 swimmers were asked if they would be willing or able to participate in the intervention portion of the study that included fixed time commitments over a six-week period. Ten students indicated that they would not or could not commit to all of the intervention requirements. The first session, which included a pretest, was attended by 33 of the 41 eligible swimmers, 27 who had initially indicated that they could be in the intervention, and 6 who had said that they could not participate in the intervention.

Characteristics. The 27 intervention-eligible swimmers were randomly assigned to an Intervention group, N equals 16 females, 7 males, mean age equals 20 point 0 years, or a Control group, N equals 11 females, 2 males, mean age equals 19 point 4 five. The six participants who had indicated that they could not meet the requirements of the intervention sessions but took the pretest, constituted a second, Non-Randomly Assigned Control group, 2 females, 4 males, mean age equals 19 point 8 three. The Intervention and Randomly Assigned Control groups were of unequal size, because the swimming intervention required 16 college swimmers in order to maintain a two to one ratio of college to Special Olympics swimmers.

Special Olympics swimmers. In addition to the 33 college swimmers, eight Special Olympics swimmers participated in the intervention portion of the swim program and responded to questions at the end of the program. The six male and two female Special Olympics swimmers ranged in age from 13 to 25, mean age equals 17 point 6, and all were still in school with the exception of the eldest. The etiology of their intellectual and developmental disabilities was varied and included Down syndrome, other known genetic or chromosomal diagnoses, and unknown causes of neurological damage.