University students’ attitudes toward the physically disabled in Palestine and Norway : a multidimensional, comparative and quantitative study

Abstract EN

The aim of this study is to investigate students’ attitudes toward disabled people in Palestine as compared to the attitudes of their peers in Norway.

The instrument used is the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale toward Persons with Disability (MAS); a self-report multidimensional inventory consisting of 34 items, that measures affects, cognition, and behavior toward the physically disabled people.

A total of 100 students from Palestine participated in this study, in addition to a comparison group of 104 students from Norway.

Despite the researchers’ impression that the Palestinian society is ridden with some prejudices concerning various forms of disability and that many of them associate disability with qader (destiny), the study shows relatively high positive attitudes toward the disabled from both Norwegian and Palestinian students.

Some minor differences can be seen between men and women in the Palestinian population and between the Norwegian and Palestinian populations as a whole.

As very few studies have been made in the region on this topic further research is recommended.