Validation of the factor structure of the Interactions with Disabled Persons Scale

Abstract

The Interactions with Disabled Person's Scale (IDP; Gething, 1991b) is designed to measure attitudes towards people with a disability. Factor analysis of the 20-item scale has identified six relatively stable and correlated factors tapping different aspects of discomfort during contact with people with disabilities (Gething, 1992, 1994). The present study investigated the factor structure of the IDP scale using 2,850 preservice teachers from six universities in Australia and South Africa. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the six-factor model fitted the data from both the Australian and South African samples. A two-factor solution reported by MacLean and Gannon (1995) was rejected. Further analysis of subscales formed from these factors showed that scores were weakly related to gender, previous contact with people with disabilities, and length of full-time employment prior to commencing study.