Young people with intellectual disabilities attending mainstream and segregated schooling: perceived stigma, social comparison and future aspirations.
Mainstream high-school students with ID feel extra school-based stigma yet stay highly hopeful about the future.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Eberhart et al. (2006) asked high-school students with intellectual disability about their lives. Some went to mainstream schools. Others went to separate special schools.
The teens answered questions about feeling different, future jobs, and hopes. The team compared answers from the two school types.
What they found
Both groups felt hopeful about jobs and adult life. Stigma did not crush their dreams.
Mainstream students added one extra worry: they felt more stigma inside the school itself. Special-school students skipped that part.
How this fits with other research
Oh-Young et al. (2015) looked at 24 studies and found that integrated classes boost real skills. G et al. agree on the optimism, yet show the social cost those gains can bring.
Hardiman et al. (2009) also saw no skill gap between settings, matching the null skill finding here. Together they tell us placement type alone does not drive social competence.
Sisson et al. (1993) showed that strong school policies improve peer attitudes. G et al. hint the same policies may be needed to buffer the extra stigma mainstream students feel.
Why it matters
You can recommend inclusive classes for the learning boost, but do not stop there. Build in peer-buddy systems, teacher scripts, and stigma-blocking rules from day one. Check in with the student often: high hope does not mean high comfort. Pair academic goals with a social safety plan so the setting that helps skills does not hurt self-worth.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Mainstream schooling is a key policy in the promotion of social inclusion of young people with learning disabilities. Yet there is limited evidence about the school experience of young people about to leave mainstream as compared with segregated education, and how it impacts on their relative view of self and future aspirations. METHODS: Sixty young people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in their final year of secondary school participated in this study. Twenty-eight individuals came from mainstream schools and 32 attended segregated school. They completed a series of self-report measures on perceptions of stigma, social comparison to a more disabled and non-disabled peer and the likelihood involved in attaining their future goals. RESULTS: The majority of participants from both groups reported experiencing stigmatized treatment in the local area where they lived. The mainstream group reported significant additional stigma at school. In terms of social comparisons, both groups compared themselves positively with a more disabled peer and with a non-disabled peer. While the mainstream pupils had more ambitious work-related aspirations, both groups felt it equally likely that they would attain their future goals. Although the participants from segregated schools came from significantly more deprived areas and had lower scores on tests of cognitive functioning, neither of these factors appeared to have an impact on their experience of stigma, social comparisons or future aspirations. CONCLUSIONS: Irrespective of schooling environment, the young people appeared to be able to cope with the threats to their identities and retained a sense of optimism about their future. Nevertheless, negative treatment reported by the children was a serious source of concern and there is a need for schools to promote the emotional well-being of pupils with intellectual disabilities.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2006 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00789.x