Validation and Revision of the Parental Attitudes Scale towards Children with Special Needs

Positive and negative parental attitude towards children with special needs not only cause related emotional states in these children, their parents and other family members, but also can affect, both directly and indirectly, the process of tracking and receiving the educational, counseling, and rehabilitation services. Hence, assessment of parental attitude towards children with special needs and also presentation of a program for improvement of the attitude are of great importance. The present research aims to study the validation and revision of parental attitude towards children with special needs. This was a survey research with a descriptive method. The statistical population included all the parents with children with special needs, who had enrolled their exceptional children in rehabilitation centers and exceptional elementary schools in the educational year 2011-2012. Using cluster sampling method, 400 subjects were selected. The data were analyzed the methods of descriptive statistics (including mean, standard deviation, and frequency percentile) as well as inferential methods (including Pearson’s correlation, and confirmatory factor analysis via SPSS and LISREL software). The results showed that the scale of parental attitude towards children with special needs was a reliable and valid scale. Therefore, applying this scale can help specialists and researchers in the area of education and rehabilitation to evaluate the parental attitude towards children with special needs.