Peer reviewed resources
This is a database of resources from open-access peer reviewed journals.
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Assessing significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses in occupational health care for workers with a chronic disease
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Purpose: To examine current practices of occupational health professionals in assessing significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses that may influence work outcomes of workers with a chronic disease.
Methods: A survey study among occupational health professionals, focusing on the assessment of illness perceptions, work-related beliefs and expectations, and behavioral responses of significant others of workers with a chronic disease. We performed linear regression analyses to investigate which factors are related to occupational health professionals’ assessment practices. We used thematic analysis to analyze qualitative data on occupational health professionals’ reasons to assess or overlook significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses.
Results: Our study sample included 192 occupational health professionals. Most seldom asked about significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses. Organizational norms and occupational health professionals’ self-efficacy were related to reported assessment practices. Reasons to assess significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses included recognizing their influence on work participation, and occurrence of stagnation. However, occupational health professionals indicated some doubt whether such assessment would always contribute to better care.
Conclusions: It is not common practice for occupational health professionals to assess significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses, although they recognize the influence of these factors on work outcomes. More research is needed as to how occupational health professionals can best address the role of significant others, and apply these new insights in their daily practice.
Gaps in access and school attainments among people with and without disabilities: a case from Nepal
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Aim: Many children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries do not attend school and one-third are out of school. In order to ensure that education is for all including children with disabilities, research is needed on barriers to schooling to identify targets for intervention. The study will examine the determinants of school achievement among persons with and without disabilities as well as among each type of impairment.
Methods: The study will utilize data from a recent national, representative household survey on living conditions among persons with and without disabilities. The individual level data used in this article comprise 2123 persons with and 2000 persons without disabilities.
Results: The results show that an alarmingly high proportion of persons in Nepal have not accessed formal education, with access being significantly lower among persons with disabilities. While the results may be influenced by the assumed relationship between disability and poverty, results from analyzing the cross-sectional data cannot be conclusive on the influence of disability vs. poverty in determining differences in access and school attainments. Increased environmental barriers, higher age, rural location, and increased levels of disability were found to be associated with lower educational achievement. Pronounced differences in access to education were found between impairment types, with individuals with physical impairments achieving the highest level and individuals with multiple impairments, hearing and mental impairments achieving lowest.
Conclusions: It is necessary both to strengthen the entire educational sector and at the same time allocate resources that will ensure that all children are on board and that particular efforts are implemented to cater for those who are easily side-lined.
Quality of Life of Persons with Disabilities in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region, Ethiopia
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Purpose: There is very little demographic or prevalence data regarding persons with disabilities in Ethiopia, let alone data on more in-depth factors such as access to services or quality of life. This study aimed to find out about the current quality of life of persons with disabilities in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR), Ethiopia.
Method: The WHO CBR Indicator Survey was used to measure quality of life, and the Washington Group Short Set was included to allow disaggregation of the data by different types of functional limitations. Interviews were conducted with 966 persons with disabilities in 10 towns in SNNPR. The majority of data collectors were persons with disabilities themselves.
Results: People with disabilities who were surveyed generally regarded their health as good (65.9%). Very few had significant levels of education (16.5% were completing higher education). Only 6.7% were working for wages and 45.2% were reportedly working on their own account. Hardly any of them (2.9%) stated that their money was sufficient for their needs. Only a small group (38%) felt valued in their community. Just over half of the respondents (56.6%) were members of a Disabled Persons’ Organisation (DPO) or any other self-representing group.
Conclusion: Persons with disabilities scored relatively or extremely low in all areas of life measured with the CBR Indicator Survey (health, education, livelihood, social and empowerment). The survey will be repeated after a few years in the same communities to measure changes over time, and persons without disabilities will be included in order to draw comparisons.
Implications: Public and private organisations in SNNPR need to become more accessible and inclusive of persons with disabilities so as to improve their quality of life.
‘Inclusive education’ in India largely exclusive of children with a disability
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Exclusion of children with a disability from education negatively affects national economic growth. Education is important for children with a disability to acquire skills that allow them to gain employment, and thus address a key driver of poverty. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 to better understand the relationship between disability, education and health among children in India. Across 17 states in India, the study sample included 39,723 households with a child aged 0-59 months (163,400 individual cases in total), based on randomised cluster sampling methodology. Key outcomes of interest were school attendance, completion of early childhood education and highest level of education. The study found one percent prevalence of disability, nearly double among boys (1.38%) compared to girls (0.77%), and linked disability to lower level access to education and highest level of education. This study confirms the negative relationship between disability and educational exposure among children, and highlights that India’s efforts to make education a fundamental right of every child have not yet translated to benefits for children with a disability. There remains a pressing need for well-designed longitudinal studies that capture the barriers and protective factors of school attendance at every transition between stages of schooling in children with a disability.
Disability and the Global South, 2019, Vol.6, No. 2
Cross-sectional Survey to Assess Prevalence of Disability and Access to Services in Albay Province, The Philippines
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Aim: A cluster randomized cross-sectional survey to assess the prevalence of disability and access to support services was conducted in Albay Province, the Philippines in April 2016.
Method: The population-based survey methodologies developed by the Washington Group of the United Nations Statistical Commission and UNICEF were utilized. A sample of 70 barangays (the 3rd level administrative division in the Philippines) was selected as clusters, with probability proportional to size, and 30 households were selected randomly in each barangay to be surveyed.
Results: The estimated prevalence of disability using the standard criteria of the Washington Group and UNICEF among children (2-17 years old) was 2.0% and for adults (≥18 years old) it was 6.5%. The estimated prevalence of disability was higher in rural than in urban areas. Deficiencies in the performance of existing services were identified; access by children with disabilities to support services was lowest in rural highland and rural plain barangays.
Conclusions: There was a large unmet demand for support services addressing the needs of persons with disabilities in Albay Province, especially in rural highland areas. Persons with disabilities were disadvantaged in access to education and employment; many had not been educated in their basic rights.
Implications: To identify, educate and fully support persons with disabilities, community-based rehabilitation (CBR), health and other rehabilitation services must communicate effectively with each other, their current work should be mapped and analysed, their comparative strengths identified, and their future work coordinated. It is a priority to educate persons with disabilities and their families about their rights, and facilitate their access to support services; this requires increased investment in communication targeting persons with disabilities and the communities, especially rural. Providers caring for persons with disabilities need to work in partnership to identify unreached persons with disabilities. Prevalence surveys, with stronger focus on the profiles and performance of CBR and related services, would add to the evidence-base to improve the quality and coverage of services for persons with disabilities.
Online Parent Training: A Pilot Programme for Children with Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in Bangladesh
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Purpose: This study aimed to assess the implementation of an online parent training programme in Bangladesh, designed to enhance parental knowledge of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders and related interventions. In addition, study participants were expected to become “Master Trainers” with the intention of training other parents in their local communities.
Method: This survey study assessed parental knowledge and programme effectiveness, such as potential online learning barriers, cultural sensitivities, and general course content feedback after each unit.
Results: The programme had an 81% completion rate (with parents completing all but one unit) with an average programme knowledge score of 86%. Parents felt that the course content was moderately difficult, the length of the units was appropriate, and the units were culturally sensitive. They requested more detailed lessons, specific case studies, and adaptation of the curriculum for older children.
Conclusion: The pilot programme merits the next phase of development, which includes local adaptation and translation. However, the findings are limited by the small sample size.
Nigerian Teachers’ Understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comparative Study of Teachers from Urban and Rural areas of Lagos State
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Purpose: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disability characterised by difficulties in social interaction and social communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviour (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Despite its prevalence the world over, there is a paucity of research in some areas such as education, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper attempts to address the gap by exploring teachers’ understanding of ASD in Nigeria.
Method: Using an adapted version of the Knowledge About Childhood Autism Among Health Workers (KCAHW) questionnaire (Bakare et al, 2008), a survey was conducted among 177 mainstream primary teachers from Lagos State (112 from eleven urban schools and 65 from four rural schools).
Results: The total mean score on the Adapted KCAHW questionnaire among all the participating teachers was 10.81 ± 4.13 out of a possible total of 16. The mean score for urban teachers was 11.21 ± 4.31, while the mean score for rural teachers was 10.11 ± 3.75. In total, 46% of the urban teachers and 31% of the rural teachers demonstrated a generally accurate knowledge of ASD, with 15% (23 urban teachers and 4 rural teachers) of the sample answering all questions correctly. Over 50% of urban teachers and almost 70% of rural teachers surveyed had only a low or moderate understanding of ASD.
Conclusions: This research supports previous studies that identified low professional knowledge and understanding of ASD, and a need for improved professional education and training.
Limitations: The focus was on only one state within Nigeria, and only on mainstream primary schools. Further research is necessary across the educational age range as well as different geographical areas in the country.
Analysis of Bibliography on Specific Learning Disability in India
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Aim: This study attempts a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of un-annotated bibliographic listing of books and citations compiled on specific learning disability published by researchers in India.
Method: An online and offline survey covering ISSN journals and ISBN marked books available in print or electronic media was compiled, coded, categorized, and classified by title, theme, year, journals, and names of author/s.
Results: The bibliographic search yielded 450 research articles drawn from 196 national and international journals of Indian origin and 29 book titles on the topic of learning disability and/or its equivalents covering themes related to their nature-characteristic (N: 184; 40.89%), therapy-intervention (N: 115; 25.56%), causes-correlates (N: 57; 12.67%), screening-assessment-identification (N: 52; 11.56 %), and epidemiology-prevalence (N: 42; 9.33%). A decade wise timeline analysis shows an increasing trend in the quantum of publications on learning disability by almost four times from the base years of <=1990s to the contemporary period, along with corresponding shift in the increased use of the term ‘learning disability’ in preference for other older terms (p:<0.05).
Conclusion: On the whole, there seems to be much unused information available about learning disabilities in the country, which now lies widely scattered.
Limitations & Recommendation: Although no claim is made that the bibliographic listing is all inclusive, it is recommended that the first step is to have an information gathering mechanism, creation of a dynamic repository, or archival system with retrieval systems in place for prospective researchers on a subject matter of great importance within the country.
Educational Concerns of Students with Hearing Impairment in Secondary and Higher Secondary Classes in Mumbai, India
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Purpose: Although education, and higher education in particular, is considered a vehicle for empowerment, the enrolment of students with hearing impairment in secondary and higher secondary education is almost negligible in comparison to their hearing peers. This study was conducted in the city of Mumbai, India, with the aim of identifying the educational concerns of students with hearing impairment studying in secondary and higher secondary classes.
Method: The survey method was followed. A questionnaire, developed and validated by the researchers, was the study tool. The participants were 152 of the randomly selected 160 students with hearing impairment studying in secondary classes, and 42 of the randomly selected 45 students with hearing impairment studying in higher secondary classes. Percentage scores as part of descriptive statistics were calculated to arrive at the results.
Results: Various academic, administrative and personal concerns were identified among these students with hearing impairment in special schools.
Conclusions: As the focus of all educational programmes is on creating and promoting barrier-free education, the educational concerns identified in the current study cannot be ignored by schools, families and the community.
Educational Opportunity, Post-School Life and CBR: A Multisectoral Approach in Rural Sri Lanka
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Purpose: Inclusive education and post-school life are crossover issues that cut across societal lines and therefore need a multisectoral approach. This study examines the educational opportunities of children with disability and their post-school life in rural Sri Lanka.
Methods: The research was implemented with multiple sectors in a rural area of the North Central Province, from January - November 2014. Mixed methods were applied as follows: surveys with children with disability aged 2 to 18 years (n=103); case studies of children with disability who dropped out of or did not attend school (n=3); semi-structured interviews with ex-students with disability who had attended special needs classes (n=13); and, informal interviews with a CBR core group officer. Data was mainly analysed with qualitative procedures.
Results: The study consists of 3 parts. The first part revealed that in terms of the current educational opportunities among children with disability aged 2 to 18 years, approximately 31.1% utilised educational resources whereas 38.8% were at home with no special social activities. The case studies in the second part revealed the reasons for limited educational opportunities in the area and the barriers to educational access, which included family members’ attitudes and socio-economic aspects such as poverty. The third part, consisting of semi-structured interviews with ex-students with disability who received education but did not participate in the CBR activities, revealed 3 types of post-school lifestyle: ‘time mostly spent at home’, ‘household chores’ and ‘temporary agricultural work’. The interviews also indicated other barriers to post-school participation, such as a lack of network and information, negative experiences during the schooling period, and families’ priorities.
Conclusions: Inadequate educational opportunities among children with disability and barriers to post-school social participation in rural Sri Lanka are revealed. This study argues the importance of the multisectoral approach to find unidentified children as well as to conduct comprehensive programmes.
Caregiver’s Involvement in Early Intervention for Children with Communication Disorders
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Purpose: Since very young people benefit from early identification of communication disorders, the primary caregivers (generally the parents) become the fulcrum of the intervention services provided. This article deals with the measures taken to empower caregivers, as part of the early intervention services offered at the All India Institute of Speech & Hearing (AIISH) in Mysore city in India, and the impact this has had on their wards’ progress.
Method: A survey was conducted among the caregivers of 205 clients who availed of early intervention services. Five-pronged data were collected, pertaining to family demographic details, early intervention measures for their children with communication disorders, type and intensity of caregiver empowerment measures provided along with early intervention services, resultant caregiver participation in the education and training of their wards, and the consequent development in children with communication disorders. The mutual influences among these factors were analysed using simple correlation measures.
Results: The findings revealed that informal, but continuous and consistent efforts to empower parents, such as counselling and guidance, had a better impact. Empowered caregivers in turn contributed towards the education and training of their children with communication disorders, resulting in improved development of their wards’ communication skills and academic achievements.
Conclusion: The evidence adds strength to recommendations that caregiver empowerment and participation need to become integral components of early intervention services for young children with special needs.
Inclusive Education in Bangladesh: Are Pre-service Teachers Ready to Accept Students with Special Educational Needs in Regular Classes?
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Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine pre-service special education (PSpE) teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education (IE) for students with special educational needs (SEN) in Bangladesh.
Method: 100 PSpE teachers from a leading teacher education institute in Bangladesh were purposively sampled. A 20-item based survey questionnaire was used to measure participants’ attitudes. Items of the survey were developed from a literature review in which Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (ATIES) by Wilczenski (1992), Concern about Inclusive Education Scale (CIES) by Sharma and Desai (2002), and Interaction with Persons with a Disability (IPD) Scaled by Gething (1994) were considered as the key specialist resources. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilised in the analysis.
Results: The results revealed that while the PSpE teachers hold favourable attitudes towards students with SEN, they are concerned about some basic issues of inclusion. Practicum and close contact with children with SEN were found to be important variables which shaped the attitudes of the PSpE teachers. Implications of the findings are discussed and further suggestions are made as to how teacher education institutes may engage PSpE teachers more effectively with their programmes to promote better inclusive practices.
Conclusion: The study suggests that there is a need for providing PSpE teachers with experiential learning prior to school practicum.
Problem Behaviour and Academic Grade Level Performance of Adjudicated Children with Juvenile Delinquency
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Purpose: This paper attempted to profile the contemporary grade level academic performance as well as the frequency, spread and intensity of problem behaviour in relation to a few associated variables, of children adjudged as juvenile delinquents in India.
Method: A cross-sectional exploratory survey design was employed, with randomised convenience sampling of 66 inmates, between 9 and 18 years of age, from two representative Observation Homes. To ascertain their current grade levels, a criterion referenced ‘Grade Level Assessment Protocol’ was prepared exclusively for this study. Another standardised ‘Behaviour Assessment Scale for Indian Children with Mental Retardation, Part B’ was used to profile their problem behaviour.
Results: The contemporary academic performance results satisfy the conventional two-grade discrepancy criteria, usually postulated for identifying children with learning disabilities. Among the associated variables examined in this study, inmates who were booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code showed significantly greater academic grade discrepancy compared to the other children. Similarly, poorer academic performance, greater grade discrepancy, as well as higher frequency, spread and intensity of reported problem behaviour were found among children from intact family backgrounds, where parents were illiterates or educated below primary school level, and more among boys than girls, and among those in the 10-12 year age group.
Conclusions: While these are tentative findings, they call attention to the need for extensive research on the possible links between academic performance, under achievement and learning disabilities, and juvenile delinquency in this country.
Inclusion of Children with Hearing Impairment in Schools: A Survey on Teachers’ Attitudes
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Purpose: Inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms has become the focus of extensive research in education. It has both academic and social benefits for all students, such as providing opportunities for communication and social interaction. The evaluation of teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion appears to be a good method to determine the success of the programme. Although this has been widely researched in many countries, the available evidence is not consistent. This study was undertaken in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, to measure and compare teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of children with hearing impairment in schools.
Method: A questionnaire developed by Giles and Tanner (1995) measuring three domains - (1) effective strategies for meeting the needs of all students, (2) the support for educational change in their district, and (3) inclusive education - was modified in keeping with cultural and geographical variations and used as the test tool. A hundred teachers of various Government and non-Government schools in 2 districts of Andhra Pradesh, India, participated in the study.
Results: Higher scores on domain 1 indicate that teachers feel effective strategies to benefit students with disabilities should be implemented in schools. The results also indicate that most teachers are agreeable to the inclusion of students with disabilities in their classrooms. Significant difference in attitudes was observed, based on the teachers’ qualifications, teaching experience, gender, level of teaching and management.
Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a need for intervention to foster more positive attitudes among teachers, if the implementation of inclusive education is to succeed. It also has implications for the framing of laws and policies for children with hearing impairments.