Strengthening Students' Attitudes Toward Disability Inclusion: A Cluster Nonrandomized Controlled Pretest–Posttest Evaluation of a School-Based Intervention

The effectiveness of inclusion in physical education (PE) depends also on the willingness of students without disabilities to interact with and include peers with disabilities. We evaluated an inclusive program in 557 students (285 intervention) from ten schools using a pretest–posttest non-equivalent control-group design, with intact PE classes allocated non-randomly. In the intervention environment, students with developmental disabilities from special education schools participated alongside the students without disabilities in four weekly adapted PE sessions. In the control environment there were no students with disabilities. Students without disabilities completed questionnaires assessing attitudes toward disability inclusion and theory of planned behavior constructs. Attitudes increased more in the inclusive than in the control environment (b = 2.13, SE = 0.12, 95%CI [1.85, 2.41], t(7.4) = 17.71, p < .001, d = 2.46, 95%CI [2.14, 2.79]). Improvements occurred across all inclusion-related constructs. Behavioral intention was mediated through injunctive norms and perceived behavioral control.

SportRxiv (preprint)