Attitudes of juvenile justice staff towards intellectual, psychiatric, and physical disabilities

Juvenile justice employees' attitudes towards diverse impairments and their ideological and demographic predictors were examined. Supporting theories are that attitudes are comprised of ideological constructs and demographic variables and that there is a hierarchy of disability present in attitudes towards diverse disabilities. A cross-sectional design with quantitative measures was used. Results indicate that attitudes towards different types of disabilities vary considerably and are hierarchical in nature and that independent variables of demographics, social desirability in responding, and ideological constructs of social dominance orientation, normativism, and humanism have some effects on attitude outcomes, but not universally.