Validating the revised Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities Scale with health care professionals

Area of Science:

• Health Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Medical Sociology

Background:

• Disability stigma is associated with negative health outcomes for individuals with disabilities.
• Existing measures of attitudes toward disability require updating and validation within a comprehensive stigma framework.

Purpose of the Study:

• To update and validate the Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities (ATPD) scale.
• To examine predictors of disability stigma among health care professionals.

Main Methods:

• A survey was administered to 272 health care professionals and students.
• Regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with disability stigma.

Main Results:

• Men reported higher disability stigma compared to women and nonbinary individuals.
• Quality of contact, but not quantity or disability status, was linked to reduced stigma.
• Agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness were associated with lower stigma.
• Psychological inflexibility, social dominance orientation, and authoritarianism predicted higher stigma.
• Endorsement of the medical model, not the social model, predicted higher stigma.

Conclusions:

• The revised ATPD scale is validated for measuring disability stigma.
• Findings illuminate disability stigma within a diverse health care professional sample, highlighting key influencing factors.