Atitudes frente à criança com deficiência: o papel dos traços de personalidade, dos estilos parentais e dos valores humanos

Abstract

The present thesis aimed at knowing the extent to which personality traits, parental styles and human values predict the attitudes of children towards their disabled peers. In order to achieve the proposed objective, four articles were carried out. Article 1, from a theoretical perspective, aimed at an explanation of three variables considered to explain the attitudes towards children with disabilities: personality traits, parental styles and human values. Article 2 aimed at knowing the evidence of validity of the Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes toward Children with Handicaps Scale (CATCH) for the Brazilian context. Therefore, two studies were carried out: in Study 1, 304 children aged from 7 to 12 years (M = 9.75, SD = 1.63), the majority of females (57.9%), students from the second to seventh year of primary education of private schools, located in a northeastern capital. All children responded to the EAFCD in its original version with 36 items and demographics. A trifactor structure was found, with seven items each, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.60 to 0.81. Study 2 aimed to replicate the structure described in the previous study, in order to know the evidence of factorial validity and internal consistency of the EAFCD in the context of the interior of the state. Specifically, the objective was to evaluate the congruence between the resulting sample structure from the capital and the interior. For that, 196 children with the same education and age group of Study 1 participated, who live in a city in the interior of the state, with a mean age of 10.7 years (SD = 0.88), 50% males and 50 % female. The results indicated that through the Catell and Horn criteria, the measure presented a three-dimensional structure, with components related to social integration (a = 0.85) , Social isolation (a = 0.65) and high valuation (a = 0.54), suggesting a reduced EAFCD structure in 18 items, as well as satisfactory index of factorial congruence (ranging from 0.93 to 1). The findings suggested evidence of validity and adequate psychometric properties of the instrument for its use in the Brazilian context. Thus, Article 3 was carried out aiming at the confirmatory analysis of the EAFCD. The sample consisted of 200 children with a mean age of 9.89 years (SD = 1.30), the majority of females (59.5%), students from the 2nd to 7th year of Elementary School. Regarding the adequacy of the dimensionality of the instrument, its trifactor structure was confirmed with satisfactory adjustment indicators: ?2 / gl = 1.37, GFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.01 (IC 90% = 0.015 -0,062). Finally, Article 4 sought to elaborate a theoretical model explaining the attitudes investigated in the aforementioned studies. A total of 314 children, with a mean age of 9.96 years (SD = 1.52), the majority of females (54.1%) participated. It is concluded that the personality trait kindness negatively predicts achievement values, contributing to positive attitudes towards the disabled child. Moreover, such attitudes can also be favored when children perceive characteristics of the authoritative style of parents.

The present thesis aimed at knowing the extent to which personality traits, parental styles and human values predict the attitudes of children towards their disabled peers. In order to achieve the proposed objective, four articles were carried out. Article 1, from a theoretical perspective, aimed at an explanation of three variables considered to explain the attitudes towards children with disabilities: personality traits, parental styles and human values. Article 2 aimed at knowing the evidence of validity of the Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes toward Children with Handicaps Scale (CATCH) for the Brazilian context. Therefore, two studies were carried out: in Study 1, 304 children aged from 7 to 12 years (M = 9.75, SD = 1.63), the majority of females (57.9%), students from the second to seventh year of primary education of private schools, located in a northeastern capital. All children responded to the EAFCD in its original version with 36 items and demographics. A trifactor structure was found, with seven items each, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.60 to 0.81. Study 2 aimed to replicate the structure described in the previous study, in order to know the evidence of factorial validity and internal consistency of the EAFCD in the context of the interior of the state. Specifically, the objective was to evaluate the congruence between the resulting sample structure from the capital and the interior. For that, 196 children with the same education and age group of Study 1 participated, who live in a city in the interior of the state, with a mean age of 10.7 years (SD = 0.88), 50% males and 50 % female. The results indicated that through the Catell and Horn criteria, the measure presented a three-dimensional structure, with components related to social integration (a = 0.85) , Social isolation (a = 0.65) and high valuation (a = 0.54), suggesting a reduced EAFCD structure in 18 items, as well as satisfactory index of factorial congruence (ranging from 0.93 to 1). The findings suggested evidence of validity and adequate psychometric properties of the instrument for its use in the Brazilian context. Thus, Article 3 was carried out aiming at the confirmatory analysis of the EAFCD. The sample consisted of 200 children with a mean age of 9.89 years (SD = 1.30), the majority of females (59.5%), students from the 2nd to 7th year of Elementary School. Regarding the adequacy of the dimensionality of the instrument, its trifactor structure was confirmed with satisfactory adjustment indicators: ?2 / gl = 1.37, GFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.01 (IC 90% = 0.015 -0,062). Finally, Article 4 sought to elaborate a theoretical model explaining the attitudes investigated in the aforementioned studies. A total of 314 children, with a mean age of 9.96 years (SD = 1.52), the majority of females (54.1%) participated. It is concluded that the personality trait kindness negatively predicts achievement values, contributing to positive attitudes towards the disabled child. Moreover, such attitudes can also be favored when children perceive characteristics of the authoritative style of parents.