Attitude Research
A Study of Youth Attitudes about Intellectual Disabilities
In the fall of 2004, Special Olympics conducted a study of Japanese youth to determine their attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities. The survey of more than 4,000 middle school students from across Japan — one of the largest such studies ever done on Japanese youth — examined their beliefs about the competency of their peers with intellectual disabilities, their willingness to interact with these individuals both in and out of school, and their feelings about including these students in their classes.
Did you know?
Although three quarters of Japanese and United States youth think that inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities in the classroom would impair their own learning experiences, over seven in ten youths in both countries recognize the positive impact inclusion can have on them, by making them more caring and understanding of people's differences. |
Overall A Study of Youth Attitudes About Intellectual Disabilities (Adobe PDF, 1.1M) found that Japanese youth underestimated the capabilities of students with intellectual disabilities and expressed that they were hesitant to interact with them.
"There is nobody who has an intellectual disability around me, so I don't know how they actually behave. In my mind they are different from me. I draw a clear line between 'them' and 'us.' I know this is wrong, but I can't help it. I guess people who actually know about intellectual disability will call this misunderstanding. But as I said, I don't have anyone with intellectual disability around me and there is no way I can know about it. Misunderstanding is to some extent inevitable. Still I hope Special Olympics will help us get rid of misunderstanding."
—Japanese Middle School Student
A Study of Youth Attitudes about Intellectual Disabilities was highlighted during the “Changing Attitudes, Changing the World” Education Forum, held on 25 February at Hotel Okura in Tokyo, Japan. The 2005 Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in Nagano, Japan, from 26 February - 5 March.
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