Attitudes of individuals with acquired brain injury towards disability.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the relationships between acceptance of disability, attitudes towards disability, quality of life, functional ability, community integration, and demographic markers, in individuals with acquired brain injuries.


METHODS
Forty subjects completed four self-report instruments, including the Attitudes Towards Persons with Disabilities Scale O-Version, the Acceptance of Disability Scale, the Rand-36 Health Status Inventory, and the Community Integration Questionnaire. An observer completed the Functional Independence Measure and the Functional Assessment Measure as a measure of the subject's level of disability.


RESULTS
Significant correlations appeared between positive regard for one's own and other's disabilities and one's acceptance of disability, as well as both higher health status and community integration. No significant correlations appeared between positive attitudes and either physical functioning, age, age of onset, or time since injury.


CONCLUSIONS
Situational factors, such as community integration, can be manipulated to potentially influence the attitude of an individual with acquired brain injury towards themselves and towards others with disabilities.
Snead
Suzanne Leigh
SL
University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. suzanne.snead@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au
Davis
John R
JR
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012925:Social Conformity; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices