Book Description

Abstract: PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of first-year college students toward people with disabilities and to compare the attitudes of students in majors with direct patient care to those students who were not. SUBJECTS: Participants included 187 students between the ages of 18 and 20 who were entering their first year of college at Springfield College in Springfield, MA. Subjects were excluded from the study if they were less than 18 years of age or if they failed to fully complete the survey packet. METHODS: Subjects were provided with 7 pictures of individuals with physical disabilities. They provided a written response to what they saw in no more than 2 sentences for each. A demographic questionnaire was also completed that included age, sex, race, and level of exposure to disabilities. The response sheet was scored independently by two of the researchers and a total score, ranging between 0 and 7, was given using the Use of Person-First Language Scale (UPFLS). ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics obtained a demographic profile of the subjects. Males made up 54.5% of the sample population; 45.5% were females. Race/Ethnicity consisted of3.2% African American, 1.6% Asian, 92.5% Caucasian, .5% Hispanic, and 2.1% 'other'. Health Science Majors made up 19.8% of the population and 80.2% were Non Health Science Majors. Of those sampled 51.8% reported being exposed to disability through media, 86.1 % reported having been exposed through a few interactions with people with a disability, 29.9% reported having a mend or a relative with a disability, I person lived with someone with a disability, and I person had a disability. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare usage of person first language between indicated majors. A two way ANOVA was performed to identify an interaction affect between sexes within major. Secondary analysis on data was done using a Mann-Whitney U test to evaluate the difference in use of person first language between males and females. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the use of person first language between Health Science and Non Health Science Majors (Z Score -0.989). The Authors fail to reject the null hypothesis, which stated there would be no difference in the usage of PFL between health science majors and non health science majors. A significant difference was seen in the UPFLS score between males and females (Z Score -3.507). Males had an average score (0- 7) of 2.52, females scored an average of 3.76. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: While no difference was found between health science and non health science majors, the total use of PFL was found to be generally poor. Also, female health science majors demonstrated the highest mean UPFLS score (3.91) and male health science majors had the lowest mean UPFLS Score (2.43). With this in mind, prior research has shown that education and exposure are the two key elements to improving attitudes and the use of PFL. Research has also shown that when health care workers use disabling language they can impair an individual's rehabilitation potential. By incorporating education and exposure into their curricula, higher learning institutions may produce more prepared, sensitive, and most importantly, effective health care providers.