Since attitudes are a crucial predictor for behavior (e.g., Ajzen & Fishbein, 2010), attitudes towards inclusion and disability receive increased attention in the context of the implementation of inclusion in the sense of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). While numerous studies address attitudes towards inclusion, less is known about attitudes towards disability. By conducting a longitudinal study on young volunteers, we aimed at measuring the development of attitudes towards people with a disability over the course of a one-year program of supervised working in social institutions and attending accompanying workshops.

We assume to observe positive changes in the volunteers’ perception of people with a disability based mainly on the Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1954) and drawing also on the Theory on Community Service (Reinders & Youniss, 2005). In short, the Contact Hypothesis states that contact to people considered as members of an outgroup will lead to the reduction of (negative) stereotypes and eventually more positive attitudes towards this group. Various studies show empirical evidence for this assumption (for an overview, see Aydin et al., 2016). Empirical investigations on effects of Service Learning indicate that a combination of increased contact with people with a disability and workshops on disability as a topic lead to more positive attitudes towards people with a disability (e.g., Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2003; Lawson, Cruz & Knollman, 2017), even when the contact setting implies hierarchical contact conditions such as working with people with a disability as a therapist (Wozencroft et al., 2015). Similar results are shown as effects of volunteering with people with a disability (Rimmerman, Hozmi & Duvdevany, 2000). Presumable, the closer contact to people with special needs makes volunteers more aware of social context questions which may then lead to the development of more prosocial attitudes (Reinders & Youniss, 2005). For attitudes towards people with a disability, Bogart, Logan, Hospodar and Woekel (2019) describe a link to individual beliefs on the construct of disability: Considering disability as an individual trait that differentiates between people with a disability and people without a disability categorically is correlated with more negative attitudes while a context-based perspective is correlated with more positive attitudes.

Based on these theoretical considerations and empirical findings, we are interested in how perspectives on and attitudes towards people with a disability develop during the participation in a one-year program of working as a volunteer in institutions which address people with a disability and attending workshops which offer opportunities to learn about the phenomena disability and reflect the volunteering experiences. With our analyses, we specifically focus on the following questions: (1) How far do young volunteers perceive people with a disability as categorically different from people without a disability? (2) How far do these perceptions change over the course of the volunteering program?  

The results presented in our paper are based on the data from the German longitudinal study EFBI 2017-2018 (Einstellungen von FSJler*innen zu Behinderung und Inklusion – Young volunteers’ attitudes towards disability and inclusion). It is the first study that systematically measures attitudes and changes in attitudes towards inclusion and disability during the participation in the state supported young volunteers’ program FSJ (Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr – Voluntary social year). The program consists in working full time in social institutions for a year and attending accompanying workshops for the total of 25 days. Our total sample consists of n = 536 young volunteers. A subsample of 220 participants filled out our standardized questionnaires at all three measurement points (i.e. beginning, middle and end of the year). Of these participants, 67% are female, the average age is 19 years old (min. = 16; max. = 24) and 69% work in designated institutions for people with a disability. Based on the results of interviews with former volunteers and on existing research literature (e.g., Gething & Wheeler, 1992), we developed a questionnaire (documented in Willems, Meyer & Frechen, subm.) measuring different dimensions of attitudes and various personal factors (such as motivation for volunteering and former experiences) and context factors (e.g., contact with people with a disability during volunteering, evaluation of that contact, topics of the accompanying workshops). To measure if the perception of people with a disability changes over the course of the program, we included, among others, an adaption of the ingroup-outgroup scale constructed by Schubert and Otten (2002): The participants were asked to indicate how much resemblance they perceive between people with (i) a physical disability, (ii) a mental disability or (iii) a psychological disorder and people without a respective disability. The answer scales consisted of seven pictorial illustrations ranging from symbolizing “no resemblance at all” (two circles far away from each other; point 1) to “total likeness” (two circles overlapping completely; point 7). Since the participating volunteers differ in former experiences, volunteering motivation and contact experiences during the program, we expect not only different baseline values concerning their perception of people with a disability but also different developmental trajectories of these values over the year. Therefore, we decided to analyze changes and development in perception via latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) which allows to describe differentiated value changes within the sample.

For all scales, the model fits of the LGCM were good (CFI≥.99, TLI≥.99, RMSEA≤.001, SRMR≤.005). The results concerning the participants’ individual perceptions of disability reveal both different baseline levels and varying developmental trajectories. However, the differences also depend on the respective kinds of disability: (i) For physical disability, perception of resemblance is relatively high at the beginning of the volunteering program (MIntercept=5.21), though significantly differing between participants (VarIntercept=1.07, z=4.928, p<.001). In average, resemblance perception increases over the year by factor MLinear=.14 (z=2.89, p=.004), however, these changes differ significantly between the participants (VarLinear=.38, z=3.76, p<001): The values of those with lower baseline values increase over the year and vice versa (correlation Intercept and Slope factor r=-.26, z=-2.14, p=.03), meaning that interindividual differences in perception decrease over the year. (ii) Similar results are obtained regarding the perception of people with a mental disability. The baseline value is only MIntercept=4.05 but also varying inter-individually (VarIntercept=1.02, z=4.72, p<.001). Again, in average the resemblance perception increases during the program (MLinear=.20, z=4.02, p<.001) but differently between participants (VarLinear=.39, z=3.69, p<001). Since the correlation between Intercept and Slope factor (r=-.17, z=-1.23, p=.22) is not significant, there is no link between baseline value level and increase or decrease of perception values. (iii) Finally, concerning psychological disorder, the LGCM analysis show different results: The baseline value of MIntercept=4.96 varies between participants (VarIntercept=1.05, z=3.66, p<.001) but does not change over the year (MLinear=.05, z=.88, p=.38). To sum up: Our results show that during a year of volunteering, the perception of people with a disability generally gets more positive in the sense that they are perceived less as categorically different. However, some volunteers and especially those who perceived the resemblance as high in the beginning of the year-long program, agree less to such a resemblance at the end of the program.

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