Browsing by Author "Nehme, Carol"

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    The Effect of Extended Contact and Imagined Contact on Friendship Intention between Students in General Education Programs and Students with Disabilities
    (2019) Nehme, Carol
    The movement towards integrating children with disabilities into inclusive classrooms is on a rise. The present study is the first of its kind to evaluate a social psychological phenomena, Contact, and apply it in general education and special education settings in the Middle East. This study makes use of effect of extended contact and imagined contact in relation to friendship intention of students in general education programs towards students with disabilities in Lebanon. The purpose of this study was to assess whether friendship intentions are influenced by intergroup contact. An experimental research design was employed and a total of 225 students, aged 8-13, from the general education program were randomly assigned to the extended contact group, or to the imagined contact group, or to the control group. The Disability Awareness Questionnaire was used to measure disability awareness in students from the general education programs; and the Friendship Intention Scale was used to check for friendship intention of students after the interventions. Results for this study indicated that contact, as an intervention, was indeed successful on the Lebanese sample in this study. Participants showed significantly higher friendship intention levels after receiving the extended and imagined interventions compared to participants from the control group. This study has impactful implications which can address policy making for inclusion and educational reform. It will also provide experimentally tested interventions for improving friendship intention between children in general education and children with disabilities.