Attitudes Of Community Residents Toward Group Homes For People With Mental Retardation In Their Own Neighborhood

Download or read book Attitudes of Community Residents Toward Group Homes for People with Mental Retardation in Their Own Neighborhood written by Jeanie Lynn Zsambok and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: The purpose of this research was to measure attitudes toward the community integration of people with mental retardation. Subjects were homeowners in neighborhoods with residential facilities (group homes) for people with mental retardation and demographically similar neighborhoods without such facilities. A total of 206 homeowners were surveyed using one or two measures. All subjects were asked to complete the Survey of Attitudes toward Disabled People (SADP) (Antonak, 1992), and the attitudes of 161 subjects were also measured using a behavioral measure. The behavioral measure took the form of a petition. One of two petitions was presented. These petitions presented information about wanting to change zoning laws to disallow group homes for people with mental retardation, or keep zoning laws the same, to allow group homes. The subjects response to the petition (signing or not signing) was taken as an indication of attitude toward community integration of people with mental retardation. This method of measuring attitude was devised based on an argument that traditional attitude surveys do not always predict behavior toward the attitude referent. Results suggest that people who live in integrated communities do have a more positive attitude toward community integration than people who live in communities without group homes. Both proximity to a group home and contact with people with mental retardation were found to be important influences on attitude. Another important finding was that the petition was more sensitive to the variables of interest (proximity and contact) than the traditional survey that was used. The survey was also more easily influenced by extraneous variables such as the data collector who presented the information, and the gender and age of the subject. The petition was influenced only by the age of the subject. The results suggest that deinstitutionalization has a positive effect on attitude and that more research should be conducted using behavioral measures.