Assessment of Undergraduates’ Superstitious Beliefs Towards Students with Disabilities: Implication for Adolescents with Disabilities

Abstract

The aim of this research was to carry out a study on the assessment of undergraduates' superstitious belief towards students with disabilities in University of Ilorin. The study population consisted of two hundred and twenty (N=220) non-handicapped students of University of Ilorin. The researcher purposively selected faculties that admitted students with disabilities.  The non-handicapped students who were willing to participate in the study where randomly selected from four faculties. The scale usedto measureundergraduate’ssuperstitious belief was titled ‘Superstitious Beliefs of Students with Disability Questionnaire (SBSDQ)” Section A contained information about their demographic data of the respondents while section B has 10 items on superstitious beliefs of persons with disabilities.  Using Cronbach alpha test, a reliability index of 0.73 was obtained. Data gathered were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages and regression analysis.All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The combination of gender, religion, faculties and levels do not significantly predict undergraduates’ superstitious beliefs of undergraduates, however religion did. It was therefore recommended that university administration should organize seminars and enlightenment programmes on scientific causes of disability.  This will help in correcting the negative attitudes of undergraduates towards people with disability.