Reliability and Validity of the Arabic Version of Attitudes Towards Intellectual Disability Questionnaire-Short Form...

Positive attitudes toward intellectual disability contribute to the effective inclusion of people with intellectual disability (PWID) in society, thereby enhancing their quality of life. The literature on tools for measuring attitudes towards PWID in Arabic is limited. The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Attitudes towards Intellectual Disability Questionnaire-Short Form (ATTID-S) using an Arab population to assess its factor structure and reliability.

A total of 812 Arabic native speakers who lived in Tunisia were recruited. The exploratory sample consisted of 223 subjects divided into male (n = 121, 54.26%) and female (n = 102, 45.74%) with an age range of between 18 and 64 (mean = 32.7 ±9.2 years). The confirmatory sample comprised 589 participants, male (n = 357, 60.61%) and female (n = 232, 39.38%), with a mean age of 31.61 (SD = 12.43). A cross-cultural translation of ATTID-S was carried. The Arab attitudes towards intellectual disability scale (A-ATTID-S) was tested using exploratory factor analysis, followed by confirmatory factor analysis.

Exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor solution explaining up to 68.74 of the total variation, with items having lambda factor loadings ranging from 0.53 to 0.9. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis, which used a wide range of goodness-of-fit indices that met the recommended standards, confirmed the measure's robustness. The internal consistency reliability of each of the subscales was investigated using reliability analysis. Cronbach's alpha scores for the subscales and total score were satisfactory. Moreover, differences in the A-ATTID-S scores between male and female with age as covariate were demonstrated.

The A-ATTID-S is a good psychometric scale that can be used to assess the attitude of a general population towards intellectual disability in the Arabic-speaking world.