Brianna Teerlink and Professor Tina Dyches, Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education
This study constructed and evaluated an extended-contact method of intervention to investigate children’s attitudes towards peers with disabilities. A 3×2 (neutral and intergroup, divided into didactic and bibliotherapy; pre- and post-intervention) design was used with 288 children ages 6-12 years in grades 1-5 in Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, North Sanpete School District, Mt Pleasant, Utah. All students completed the Acceptance Scale/Acceptance Scale for Kindergarteners-Revised as a pre-test and a post-test measure. Students also completed the Adjective Checklist as an additional post-test measure. Two weeks after post-test measures were completed, three students from each grade, with a minimum of one from each intervention group and one from each control group, were interviewed for additional qualitative data. Children’s picture books that included characters with disabilities were used for intergroup contact over a period of five instructional sessions for students in the bibliotherapy group. Students in the didactic instruction received similar disability awareness lessons without the use of bibliotherapy. Children in the control group did not receive any instruction related to individuals with disabilities beyond what was presented as part of their normal curriculum.
Quantitative data for both the Acceptance Scale and the Adjective Checklist indicate that the use of bibliotherapy to teach children about disabilities has little effect on students’ perceptions of individuals with disabilities. At the time of reporting, qualitative data is still being processed for significance. Bibliotherapy has been promoted as an effective means of impacting perceptions in a variety of settings and particularly with children and young adults.
Results from the Acceptance Scale indicated that all three groups had positive attitudes towards individuals with disabilities at both the pre-test and the post-test. Also, all grades except first grade had an overall positive attitudinal change from pre- to post-test, although these changes were not significant. Question 3 in the bibliotherapy group and question 5 in the didactic group did significantly increase in positive responses by the students, and questions 13, 16, and 17 significantly increased in positive responses in the control group. Teachers further noted two significant changes in students in the bibliotherapy and didactic groups from the pre-test to the post-test. However, in this study, no significant correlation was found between the use of bibliotherapy as a means of extended contact and increasingly positive self-reported perceptions of individuals with disabilities.
Similar results across all groups initially suggest that more sensitive measures may be necessary to determine significant differences, but further investigation is needed. Alternative explanations for the lack of movement, such as limitations on the quantitative measurements or cross contamination between each experimental group and the control group, are addressed; potential changes to further eliminate extraneous variables and future suggestions for work in the field are offered.
The quantitative data from this project was analyzed and compiled for an honors thesis project and presented at the McKay School of Education Mentored Research Conference in April of 2012 and as a published honors thesis at Brigham Young University. Once qualitative data is also fully analyzed, results from this project will be submitted for publication in journals within the field of special education.