Normal and exceptional children's attitudes toward themselves and one another

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Special Education

Background:

• Assessing the impact of educational integration on children's self-perception.
• Understanding the social-emotional outcomes of mainstreaming for exceptional students.
• Investigating self-concept differences between normal and exceptional children in inclusive classrooms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate self-concept differences among normal and exceptional children in mainstreamed settings.
• To determine the influence of mainstreaming on the self-perception of exceptional children.
• To examine the social-emotional implications of current mainstreaming practices.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children to assess self-concept.
• Collected data from 65 junior high school students (54 normal, 11 exceptional) in mainstreamed classrooms.
• Compared self-evaluation scores across different student groups.

Main Results:

• Exceptional children, as a group, reported the least favorable self-evaluations.
• Normal children reported less favorable self-evaluations than the most favorable group (unspecified).
• Both normal and exceptional children perceived exceptional children as a group less favorably, indicating a potential stigma.

Conclusions:

• Mainstreaming itself may not directly harm exceptional children's self-concepts.
• A negative stigma is associated with exceptional children in mainstreamed environments.
• Current mainstreaming approaches may not resolve social-emotional challenges for exceptional students.