Attitudes towards the inclusion of university students with disabilities: Development and validation of a scale based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

Introduction. The focus of our research converges on the analysis of attitudes and the prediction of the behavior of university students towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in university. The evaluation of attitudes and the prediction of behavior are complex, but it is fundamental because of the decisive impact they have on the participation of students with disabilities in the socio-educational field. Therefore, for this purpose a scale based on the theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model has been developed and validated; one of the models that provides a more complete methodological vision to explain and predict behavior. Methodology. The sample consisted of 1044 participants, of whom 623 were students from Spanish universities and 421 from Argentine universities, collected with the instrument designed according to the TPB. The validity and reliability of this instrument were estimated through the Confirmatory Factor Analysis, a procedure framed within SEM (Structural Equation Modeling). Results. The results obtained in terms of the reliability and validity of the instrument confirms the adequacy of the goodness-of-fit, internal consistency, discriminant validity and criterion validity. On the other hand, it's observed that, in general terms, the responses of students without disabilities toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education are positive. Discussion and conclusions. Although there are researches carried out in university field that analyze the attitudes towards people with disabilities, there are few that apply the model of Theory of Planned Behavior with sufficient evidence of reliability and validity. In this sense, we present a psychometrically validated scale which objective is to evaluate the attitudes and the intention of university student to the inclusion of students with disabilities in university. In this way, we can develop interventions to improve the inclusion of students with disabilities in university.