Attitudinal barriers from the perspective of people with physical disabilities

Objective:To quantify attitudes toward disabilities, perceived by persons with disabilities (PWDs) treated at a university hospital in Brazil, as well as to determine whether PWD-perceived attitudinal barriers correlate with various factors. Methods This was a cross-sectional, observational study of PWDs who completed the Attitudes to Disability Scale for persons with physical disabilities (ADS-D), which quantifies the perceived attitudinal barrier, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The data were correlated with sex, income, depression, FIM score, type of disability and time since the onset of disability. Results: We evaluated 68 patients - 50.0% with a spinal cord injury, 38.2% with one or more amputated limbs and 11.8% with hemiplegia - of whom 66.2% were male, with a mean age of 39.33 ± 12.89 years, a mean of 10.95 ± 4.25 years of schooling, a median time since the onset of disability of 20.5 months (range, 10.5–33.5 months) and a median FIM score of 110.5 (range, 94–116.5). Of the 68 patients, 55.9% perceived their income to be below the national average, and depression was observed in 11.76%. The mean ADS-D total score (61.29 ± 8.75) did not correlate with sex, functionality, type of disability or time since the onset of disability. The perceived magnitude of the attitudinal barrier correlated with income (β-coefficient: −3.91; p = 0.001) and depression (β = −1.74; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Attitudinal barriers are influenced by income as a facilitator of inclusion and by depression as a barrier to inclusion.

Not Minding the Gap: How Hostile Sexism Encourages Choice Explanations for the Gender Income Gap

Researchers have shown that prejudice encourages explanations for inequality that attribute stigmatized groups’ negative outcomes to internal-controllable causes. We extended this research by investigating how ambivalent sexism affects attributions for gender income inequality. Hostile sexism should facilitate acceptance of gender income inequality through attributions that emphasize individual choice. We tested this hypothesis in two web-based samples of predominately White American men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 82 years ( Mage = 33.8). In Study 1 ( N = 650), hostile sexism, but not benevolent sexism, positively predicted acceptance of gender income inequality. Attributions of choice and societal unfairness mediated this effect. In Study 2 ( N = 242), following exposure to hostile sexism, participants increased acceptance of gender income inequality; choice explanations mediated this relation, although these effects occurred for political conservatives only. Consistent with prior work on attributions, hostile sexism was linked to victim-blaming attributions for gender income inequality. Overall, hostile sexism creates an attitudinal barrier—especially for conservatives—to supporting equal pay for women. To overcome this barrier, organizations could implement strategies aimed at ensuring more objective performance evaluations and pay decisions. Further, policy makers and communicators should be careful in choosing how they frame the gender pay gap. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684318815468

Using UV photoaged photography to better understand Western Australian teenagers’ attitudes towards adopting sun-protective behaviors

Background: This study aimed to determine whether the viewing of a personal photoaged photograph had the capacity to alter Western Australian teenagers’ pro-tanning attitudes. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen teenagers. Findings: The teenagers’ pro-tanning attitudes prior to viewing their photoaged photograph are encapsulated in the study’s central theme: ‘You’ve got to look after your skin and use sunscreen, but I always forget!’. Post-viewing their photoaged facial image many teenagers reiterated their intentions to adopt (when they remembered) skin-protective measures. However, photoaged photography did not alter other teenagers’ intention to tan. New knowledge: Teenagers who choose to continue to tan were aware of the long-term health risks associated with ultra-violet over-exposure. However, their desire remained strong to emulate the media promoted image of bronzed youth being popular individuals. Indeed, the social benefits of being considered attractive to their peers became an attitudinal barrier to the teenagers’ adoption of skin-protective behaviours. Those teenagers who changed their pro-tanning attitudes following their viewing of their ultra-violet photoaged photograph did so because of the shock they received when they saw their sun-damaged facial image. This suggests that photoageing photography can be effective with many adolescents because it reduces the cause-and-effect delay that exists between the occurrence of sun-damage and its visual presentation in later-life. Conclusion: Greater effort needs to be focused on increasing teenagers’ understanding of how sun-damage occurs, when it is appropriate to apply sunscreen, as well as in changing the prevailing media image of an attractive body being a tanned body.

Political Support, Political Skepticism, and Political Stability in New Democracies

Conventional wisdom holds that high levels of system support serve as an attitudinal barrier to democratic breakdown. In unconsolidated democracies, however, where democratic norms are regularly violated, the authors hypothesize that a healthy dose of political skepticism toward the political system, neither extreme rejection nor uncritical support of the system, would be associated with greater attitudinal resistance to breakdown in the form of a military coup. Using survey data from Peru, the authors confirm this expectation, showing that the relationship between system support and approval of military coups follows a V-curve pattern. This research fails to find support for the contention that a greater involvement in associational life or a greater degree of interpersonal trust predispose people to reject coups. The authors found other factors, such as rejection of the use of direct tactics for political purposes, support for the incumbent, and age, that are better predictors of coup support and rejection.