Psychometric Analysis of the Scale of Attitude towards Persons with Disabilities in a Sample of MUFPS Students

Abstract

As social interest in improving the training and attitudes of future secondary education teachers towards students with disabilities increases, there is a need for instruments that meet these needs and serve to evaluate their effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Attitude Scale for People with Disabilities (EAPD) developed by Arias et al. (2016). A covariance-based structural equation modeling has been performed, using the weighted least squares estimation method with chi-square adjusted for mean and variance, and the ordinal omega coefficient to estimate internal consistency. The sample is composed of 400 students of the Master’s Degree in Teacher of Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching (MUFPS) from different Spanish universities. The analysis of the EAPD has shown that this scale can be interpreted by three dimensions: (a) Social and personal relationships with people with disabilities-RS, (b) Normalized life-VN and (c) Intervention programs-PI. However, this study presents as a finding a second-order structure that allows to conclude the interpretation of this scale jointly, the latter being an important finding in the educational field.