Original scientific paper
Do education, volunteering, contacts and self-esteem relate with students’ attitudes toward employed visually impaired persons?
Jelena Pensa Galian
; Centar za odgoj i obrazovanje Vinko Bek, Zagreb
Marlena Plavšić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4035-6610
; Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli
Abstract
Attitudes toward people with disabilities influence their integration and employment, so it is valuable to examine what they may relate with. The objectives of this study were to investigate attitudes toward employed visually impaired persons among university students related to (1) their helping or non-helping study programmes; (2) their contacts with visually impaired persons; (3) their experience in volunteering; and (4) their level of self-esteem. There were 427 participants (M = 20.7 years) from seven study programmes in Croatia.
Attitudes were measured with the Croatian SZS scale, three closed-type questions explored contacts and volunteering, and self-esteem was measured with Rosenberg’s scale. Results show that (1) students of helping professions, (2) students who had contacts with visually
impaired persons, and (3) students with experience in volunteering related to human rights, persons with disabilities and psychosocial activities have more favourable attitudes toward employed visually impaired persons compared to students of non-helping professions, students who had no contacts with visually impaired persons and students without specific experience in volunteering. No significant differences were found in attitudes related to (4) students’ self-esteem.
Keywords
choice of profession; formal education; contacts; self-esteem; visually impaired persons, volunteering
Hrčak ID:
202783
URI
Publication date:
30.1.2018.
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