Students' attitudes towards people with disabilities expressed through the concept of social distance

Pojam invaliditet odnosi se na dugotrajna mentalna, tjelesna, intelektualna i osjetilna oštećenja koja u međudjelovanju s drugim preprekama osobama mogu uskratiti ravnopravno sudjelovanje u društvu. Sam pojam invaliditeta ima negativnu konotaciju budući da u prvi plan stavlja ograničenje, odnosno smetnje osobe te na taj način pridonosi negativnim stavovima pripadnika društvene zajednice prema osobama s invaliditetom te njihovoj diskriminaciji i stigmatizaciji. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati stavove studenata Sveučilišta u Zadru prema osobama s invaliditetom. Pri tome je u ispitivanju stavova korišten koncept socijalne distance, koji se uobičajeno koristi kao pokazatelj diskriminacije prema pripadnicima određenih društvenih skupina. U istraživanju su sudjelovala 103 studenta Sveučilišta u Zadru, pri čemu je broj ženskih sudionika bio 90, muških 12, dok jedna osoba nije dala ovaj podatak. Studenti su pristupili online verziji upitnika koji je sadržavao pitanja vezana za osnovne demografske karakteristike sudionika, pitanja vezana za osobno iskustvo s osobama s invaliditetom te modificiranu Bogardusovu skalu socijalne distance kojom je mjerena socijalna distanca prema osobama s intelektualnim i tjelesnim oštećenjima. Očekivano je kako će viša razina distance biti iskazana prema osobama s intelektualnim oštećenjem te je sukladno tome i utvrđeno kako studenti iskazuju višu razinu socijalne distance prema osobama s intelektualnim oštećenjem u odnosu na osobe s tjelesnim oštećenjem. Suprotno polazišnoj hipotezi, prema kojoj je očekivano da vrsta odnosa, preciznije osobno iskustvo kontakta s osobama s invaliditetom, oblikuje razinu socijalne distance, dobiveni rezultati nisu potvrdili razliku u razini socijalne distance prema osobama s invaliditetom s obzirom na iskustvo kontakta.The term disability refers to long-term mental, physical, intellectual and sensory impairments that, in interaction with other obstacles, can deny people equal participation in society. The term disability itself has a negative connotation, since it foregrounds a person's limitation or handicap, thus contributing to the negative attitudes of members of the social community towards people with disabilities and their discrimination and stigmatization. The aim of this research was to examine the attitudes of students of the University of Zadar towards people with disabilities. The concept of social distance, which is commonly used as an indicator of discrimination against members of certain social groups, was used in the examination of attitudes. 103 students of the University of Zadar participated in the research, where the number of female participants was 90, male 12, while one person did not provide this information. The students accessed the online version of the questionnaire, which contained questions related to the basic demographic characteristics of the participants, questions related to personal experience with people with disabilities, and a modified Bogardus social distance scale that measured social distance towards people with intellectual and physical disabilities. It was expected that a higher level of distance would be expressed towards people with intellectual disabilities, and accordingly it was determined that students express a higher level of social distance towards people with intellectual disabilities compared to people with physical disabilities. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, according to which it is expected that the type of relationship, more precisely the personal experience of contact with persons with disabilities, shapes the level of social distance, the obtained results did not confirm the difference in the level of social distance towards persons with disabilities with regard to the experience of contact