THE INTERACTION WITH DISABLED PERSONS SCALE - A NEW AUSTRALIAN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

This article reports results of the construct validation of a new Australian measure of attitudes towards people with disabilities. Following a statement of the theoretical background for the instrument and a critique of existing instruments, an outline is given of procedures used in the development and psychometric evaluation of the Interaction with Disabled Persons (IDP) Scale. Results indicate that test-retest and internal reliability coefficients compare favourably with existing overseas instruments and that a stable factor structure has emerged over time across a variety of samples. Support was provided for all hypotheses based on the predicted nomological network of the IDP Scale. The article closes with a discussion of current and potential applications of die instrument.