Social Judgments of Integrated and Segregated Students With Mental Retardation Toward Their Same-Age Peers

Abstract

This paper investigates the social judgments of educationally integrated and segregated students with mental retardation toward their same-age peers who are mentally retarded and nonretarded. Social judgment data were derived from sixty students (twenty at each of the elementary, junior, and senior high levels) half of whom were primarily integrated and half of whom were primarily segregated. Analyses revealed that elementary level students rated peers who were retarded and nonretarded significantly lower than did either older group. Similarly, segregated students rated both peer groups more negatively than did integrated students at every age level. Only junior high integrated students discriminated between the two peer groups rating nonretarded students more positively. Generally it may be concluded that maturity and integration foster more positive attitudes among students with mental retardation toward both retarded and nonretarded peers. The idiosyncratic discrimination by junior high retarded students in favor of nonretarded peers is compatible with normal child development findings which emphasize the importance of social identification and peer status at this level.