Attitudes of Pakistani community members and staff toward people with intellectual disability.
Pakistani staff and educated adults say they welcome people with intellectual disability, yet hidden-bias work warns that surveys can hide quiet prejudice.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Patka et al. (2013) asked adults in Pakistan how they feel about people with intellectual disability.
They gave a paper survey to community members and to staff who work with clients.
The team looked at four attitude areas: acceptance, help, similarity, and control.
What they found
Staff held the warmest views. Women, college-educated people, and minority-faith groups also scored higher.
The four-factor attitude model fit the Pakistani sample well.
How this fits with other research
Ferreri et al. (2011) ran a near-copy survey in the United States and saw the same pattern: women and younger adults liked disability more.
Kaufman et al. (2010) talked with families in south India and heard mostly stigma; Mazna’s numbers look sunnier, but the India work used open interviews, not check-box forms.
Wilson et al. (2014) reviewed 18 studies that used hidden bias tests. They found quiet negative feelings that self-report surveys miss. Their review updates Mazna’s method: questionnaires can overstate kindness.
Freeman (2006) saw kids grow harsher toward ID as they aged. That seems opposite, but the samples differ: Mazna asked adults, A asked 5- to 11-year-olds. Age, not country, likely drives the gap.
Why it matters
If you hire staff or train aides, know that paid helpers already start kind. Build on that goodwill with clear disability facts and contact opportunities. Add self-reflection tasks or implicit-bias probes so warm survey answers turn into warm daily acts.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The acceptance and inclusion of persons with intellectual disability can vary across cultures, and understanding attitudes can provide insight into such variation. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored attitudes toward people with intellectual disability among Pakistani community members and disability service providers. We administered the Community Living Attitudes Scale (Henry et al., 1996), a measure of attitudes toward people with intellectual disability developed in the United States, to 262 community members and 190 disability service providers in Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis found a 4-factor solution (empowerment, similarity, exclusion, and sheltering) fit the Pakistani sample. More positive attitudes were observed in staff serving people with intellectual disability, females, Christians, Hindus, Sunnis, and people with greater education. We discuss implications for research, theory, and practice.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-118.1.32