Effects of disability type, prior contact, and school setting on attitudes toward peers with disabilities among Saudi female students aged 7 to 12 years.

BACKGROUND: Inclusive educational practices enhance engagement among students with disabilities in school settings. This study aimed to investigate: (i) the general attitudes of non-disabled female Saudi Arabian students toward their peers with disabilities, with a particular focus on the general attitudes towards those with hearing disabilities (HD), intellectual disabilities (ID), and behavioral problems (BP), and (ii) the relationships between three selected student-related characteristics (type of school, in-school contact with peers with disabilities, and out-of-school contact with peers with disabilities). METHOD: Using a sample of 678 participants aged 7-12 years old, we tested the impact of personal and contextual factors (age, type of peer disability, type of school, in-school interaction with peers with disabilities, and out-of-school interaction with peers with disabilities on the attitudes of non-disabled Saudi Arabian elementary school students using ANCOVA linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Regardless of the type of disability, the participants reported having positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities. The type of disability, school, and previous interactions all had a significant effect on fostering positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities, specifically, those with HD, ID, and BP. The participants had less positive attitudes towards their peers with BP compared to their attitudes towards peers students with HD or ID which were more positive and had a larger effect size. The findings also demonstrated that the participants' attitudes toward their peers with HD or ID were influenced by their previous experience of interacting with people with disabilities as well as the type of school they attended. Participants from Saudi ARAMCO (SA) schools had more positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities compared to those from public schools, and participants from non-inclusive schools had more positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities compared to those from inclusive schools. Participants from non-inclusive schools had much more positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities than those from inclusive schools; participants who had previous out-of-school interactions with people with disabilities had significantly more positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities than those who had no previous out-of-school interactions with people with disabilities. Participants from SA schools had the most negative attitudes toward peers with BP, regardless of age. CONCLUSIONS: The findings imply that being taught in an inclusive educational setting in Saudi Arabia does not inevitably encourage non-disabled students to adopt more positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities. Therefore, with the support of their school principals, Saudi Arabian teachers working in inclusive educational settings should be encouraged to develop and implement initiatives to adopt an inclusive strategy based on group projects bringing together students with and without disabilities.

Physical education teachers' attitudes toward inclusion of students with disabilities in Saudi Arabia.

The attitudes of physical education (PE) teachers toward inclusion are critical to the successful provision of inclusive teaching for students with disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Saudi Arabian PE teachers toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in PE classes and the effect of sociodemographic variables (e.g., gender and length of teaching experience) on their attitudes toward inclusion. A total of 1,314 PE teachers (M age = 41.09, SD = 9.40, females = 42.8%) completed the Arabic version of the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education-Revised Scale (SACIE-R). Analyses found that, in general, PE teachers had moderately positive attitudes toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in PE lessons. A significant difference was found between the two genders in their attitudes toward inclusion. Specifically, female PE teachers demonstrated more positive attitudes toward inclusion than males. Multiple linear regression analysis, meanwhile, showed that the length of teaching experience and the experience of teaching a student with a disability were significant predictors of participants' attitudes toward inclusion. Our findings highlighted the importance of reconsidering the quality of PE teachers' experiences and interactions with students with disabilities as a means to improving their attitudes, which in turn would translate into successful inclusion.