Do education, volunteering, contacts and self-esteem relate with students’ attitudes toward employed visually impaired persons?

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.