AN INTERNATIONAL VALIDATION OF THE INTERACTION WITH DISABLED PERSONS SCALE

The Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP) was devised to measu re attitudes in terms of discomfort reported about social interaction with people viith disabilities. The Scale has been used in Australia f or ten years. This article reports results of an international validat ion project that was designed to determine whether psychometric charac teristics and norms emerging for Australian groups apply elsewhere. A methodological proforma was developed to maximize uniformity of data c ollection across nine countries: Australia, Canada, Croatia, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Poland, Scotland and the United States. In most co untries the Scale was administered in English; however it also was tra nslated into German, Polish, French and Croat. Results indicate that a cross countries mean scores fell within ten points, similar moderate t o high levels of item homogeneity occurred and level of prior contact with people with disabilities emerged as the strongest predictor of ID P scores. It was concluded that the IDP Scale is a valid measure that is able to discriminate between respondents within the countries inclu ded in the study.