Attitudes of Polish Medical and Health Sciences Students towards Persons with Physical Disabilities Using the MAS-PL Scale

Iwona Radlińska, Marta Kożybska and Beata Karakiewicz
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Iwona Radlińska: Subdepartment of Medical Law, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, ul. Żołnierska 48, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland
Marta Kożybska: Subdepartment of Medical Law, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, ul. Żołnierska 48, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland
Beata Karakiewicz: Subdepartment of Social Medicine and Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Żołnierska Str. 48, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: Discovering the role of negative attitudes in the social functioning of people with disabilities, tools were developed to measure these attitudes, of which the Multidimensional Attitude Scale of People with Disabilities (MAS) is a good one. It is particularly important to study the attitudes of people who are professionally involved in meeting the needs of people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes towards people with physical disabilities among medical and health sciences students regarding gender, year of study, field of study, and place of residence. The study was conducted among 625 students in Poland with the use of the MAS-PL scale. The results obtained indicate that women display more positive attitudes towards people with disabilities than men in the cognition and behavioural domains. In the emotional domain, these attitudes were more negative than in the other domains and almost identical for both genders. The year of study, field of study, and place of residence did not differentiate students in terms of their MAS score. Since the sociodemographic variables studied do not determine a positive attitude, educational interventions to increase contact with people with disabilities should be undertaken in future research, and this factor should be investigated as an element of attitude modulation.

Keywords: disability; medical students; multidimensional attitudes scale towards persons with disabilities; MAS scale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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