Analysis of attitudes towards disability among university students: a focus on the theory of reasoned action

Abstract

The present democratic values in most Western societies have fostered social norms promoting inclusion of groups at risk of social exclusion. This research has focused on the inclusion of the disabled collectives at conventional university environment. For that purpose an inquiry was carried out to young university students registered in the University of A Coruña, in several grades and levels of Economics and Business Administration studies. Thereinafter, we performed a descriptive research and a factorial analysis based on the Theory of Reasoned Action. Results obtained indicate that dominant social values are a determining factor for inclusion, however individual attitudes, although favorable for helping and giving support to people with disabilities, are not as significant as it was expected. Furthermore, results concerning the intention to help for people with disabilities inclusion indicate that students would rather prefer public institutions to take care of this issue.