Students’ attitudes towards disabled people: mediator’s role of emotion and behavior

The researchers hypothesized that emotion and behavior play a mediator role in the way students’ beliefs-thoughts about people with disabilities shape their attitudes. The study explored this hypothesized mediator role, aiming to elucidate the processes through which beliefs and thoughts translate into attitudes toward the disabled. To this end, a research design characterized by cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational features was employed. The research population consisted of 152 students who had selected the elective course on approaches to disability at a nursing school in Türkiye, whereas the sample comprised 110 students volunteering to take part in the study. The data for the study were collected within the classroom setting. The attitude score was 174.30 ± 24.20. The results revealed that thoughts-beliefs about individuals with disabilities - a predictive variant in both path a1 and path a2 - significantly positively impacted both behavior and emotion. In path d, emotion was found to exert an influence on behavior, while in path b1, emotion had a significant positive effect on attitude. In path b2, the behavior was found to influence attitude significantly and positively. No evidence was found to support the proposed mediating role of emotion and behavior in the relationship between individuals’ thoughts-beliefs about the disabled and their corresponding attitudes toward disabled individuals. In conclusion, the combined influence of emotion and behavior does not act as a sequential mediator in the relationship between thoughts-beliefs regarding the disabled and corresponding attitudes. Nonetheless, the existence of partial mediation was supported by the significant direct impact observed. Clinical research ethics committee numbered: Clinical Trials Ethics Committee of Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine, 2018-299047-193.