Social and Occupational Attitudes of High School Guidance Counselors Toward Physically Handicapped Individuals (Illinois)
Mirell, Holly N.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69104
Description
Title
Social and Occupational Attitudes of High School Guidance Counselors Toward Physically Handicapped Individuals (Illinois)
Author(s)
Mirell, Holly N.
Issue Date
1987
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Guidance and Counseling
Abstract
This study examined relationships between social and occupational attitudes of high school guidance counselors toward physically disabled, plus effects of referring to specific disabilities (blindness, amputation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy) upon those attitudes. From a pool of 1501, 357 Illinois counselors were randomly selected and mailed questionnaires. Order of the two parts of the questionnaire, Disability Social Relationship Scale (Grand, Bernier, & Strohmer, 1982) and Appropriateness of Occupations Inventory (Mirell, 1983), and reference to disabling condition determined treatment group. One hundred and ninety-one counselors responded.
Pearson Product Moment Correlations, t-tests, Scheffes, and ANOVAs were used to test 10 null hypotheses. Significant findings included: (1) small positive relationships (p < .05) between social relationship scores and numbers of occupations indicated as appropriate for disabled by counselors; (2) high-person-involved occupations indicated as more appropriate for disabled than low-person-involved occupations (p < .0001); (3) appropriateness of occupations scores varied by disability referent (p < .05); (4) higher appropriateness scores evidenced by subjects whose referent involved brain injury than by subjects whose referent did not (p < .0008); (5) social relationship scores varied by referent presented (p < .008) with epilepsy being responded to differently than cerebral palsy (p < .05); (6) males and younger counselors more accepting than females and older counselors (p < .05). Order of presentation of the questionnaire, prior experience with the disabled, and grouping referents (brain injury/no brain injury) for analysis of social attitudes did not yield significant results.
Several conclusions regarding attitudes of counselors towards the disabled were reached: (1) a small positive relationship exists between social and occupational attitudes; (2) occupations involving much interaction with people are viewed as more appropriate than occupations with lesser amounts; (3) social and occupational attitudes vary with disability with most acceptance indicated for epilepsy and least for cerebral palsy (social) and blind (occupational). There is evidence to suggest that age and sex of subject affect responses.
High school counselors vary their acceptance of disabled students according to disability and situation. Present practice, career education, training, theory and research do not adequately address this phenomenon, indicating further investigation is warranted.
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