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Published on: June 8, 2017
Comparison of able-bodied and spinal cord injured individuals' appraisals of disability
J Morris1, A Swier-Vosnos, J Dusold
1Roosevelt University, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60605, USA. jmorris@roosevelt.edu
Study Design:
Survey.
Objectives:
Compare views of disability in able-bodied and spinal cord-injured individuals.
Setting:
United States.
Methods:
A group of able-bodied individuals were asked to imagine that they had sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI), then complete the Appraisals of DisAbility: primary and secondary scale (ADAPSS) as if they were injured. The mean scores of able-bodied individuals on each of the six Subscales was compared with the mean scores of real spinal cord-injured individuals using t-tests of independent means.
Results:
Responses of able-bodied individuals was significantly different from real SCI individuals on five of the six Subscales of the ADAPSS.
Conclusion:
Able-bodied individuals' appraisals of disability after imagined SCI are much more negative than the actual appraisals of disability in real spinal cord-injured individuals.
