Impact of an Inclusive Postsecondary Education Program on Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability.
One semester of volunteer peer mentoring in inclusive college classes cuts discomfort and raises willingness to interact with students who have ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tracked 42 college students who volunteered as peer mentors in an inclusive post-secondary program.
The mentors spent one semester working side-by-side with students who have intellectual disability.
Before and after, each mentor took two quick attitude tests that measure comfort and willingness to interact.
What they found
After one semester, mentors felt less uneasy around people with ID.
They also said they would choose to sit with or partner with a person with ID more often.
Knowledge scores went up too, but the biggest jump was in comfort level.
How this fits with other research
Whiteside et al. (2022) push the idea further by paying people with ID to be co-researchers, not just classmates.
Both papers agree: real shared work, not token roles, changes attitudes.
Wehman et al. (2014) and Scalzo et al. (2015) looked at academic skills, not attitudes, so they line up on method but answer different questions.
Why it matters
If you run or design college-based programs, recruit typical students as volunteers and give them real jobs.
One semester is enough to soften stigma and boost natural interaction.
Track comfort with a quick survey at start and end to show stakeholders the social payoff.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
People with intellectual disability (ID) experience negative consequences as a result of stigmas held by the public. Students with ID involved in inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs demonstrate positive outcomes. This study examines the impact of an IPSE program on typically matriculating student attitudes toward ID. Explicit and implicit attitudes were measured at the start and end of a semester among IPSE volunteer peer mentors (n = 17) and an uninvolved student group (n = 14). Findings indicate that volunteers demonstrated lower discomfort after their volunteer experience, as measured by the Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability Questionnaire (ATTID). Volunteers also demonstrated higher knowledge of causes and preference for interaction with people with ID than nonvolunteers. This demonstrates that volunteer involvement in IPSE positively impacts attitudes toward people with ID among typically matriculating college students.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2019 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-57.4.323