My Thinking About Inclusion – Parents’ Scale [MTAI-12]

Brief Description

The My Thinking About Inclusion – Parents’ Scale (MTAI-12) is a psychometric instrument designed to assess the attitudes and perceptions of parents of typically developing children regarding the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools.

The scale consists of 12 statements, rated on a 5-point Likert scale:

1 = Strongly agree
2 = Agree
3 = Neither agree nor disagree
4 = Disagree
5 = Strongly disagree

The items are grouped into three main subscales:

Core Perspectives on Inclusion: general beliefs about the value and appropriateness of inclusion.

Expected Outcomes: parents’ expectations regarding the possible effects and consequences of inclusion.

Classroom Practices: parents’ views about educational practices associated with the implementation of inclusion.

Aim

The primary aim of the MTAI-12 is to assess and understand parents’ attitudes toward the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream educational settings.

More specifically, the instrument seeks to examine:

• parents’ core beliefs about inclusion,
• their expectations regarding the outcomes of inclusion,
• and their views regarding classroom practices related to inclusive education.

Assessing these dimensions can provide useful information about how parents perceive inclusion and the extent to which they support related educational practices.

Sample and Adaptation

The adaptation of the instrument was based on a sample of 338 parents of typically developing children, including 156 women and 182 men.

Participants ranged in age from 27 to 64 years, with a mean age of approximately 39 years and 5 months. Most participants were from Northern Greece and Crete.

These sample characteristics should be taken into account when interpreting the findings and considering their generalizability to other parent populations.

Scoring

Participants rate each of the 12 statements according to their level of agreement using the 5-point Likert scale.

Items 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, and 12 require reverse scoring before total or subscale scores are calculated.

Reverse scoring is performed as follows:

1 → 5
2 → 4
3 → 3
4 → 2
5 → 1

Correct recoding of the reverse-scored items is necessary so that all items follow the same direction of interpretation.

Reliability and Validity

The instrument demonstrates satisfactory construct and face validity.

The correlation between parents’ overall perceptions of inclusion and their responses to two related direct questions about inclusion was reported as r = 0.58.

Internal consistency, assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, ranged from 0.64 to 0.78 across the individual subscales, while the overall 12-item scale had a reported value of α = 0.76.

The split-half reliability coefficient was reported as 0.74.

These findings support the use of the instrument for research purposes, while interpretation should always consider the characteristics of the population and the specific study design.

Applications

The MTAI-12 may be used in educational and research settings to investigate parents’ attitudes toward inclusive education.

It may be applied to examine differences in inclusion-related perceptions according to demographic or social characteristics and to explore associations between parental attitudes and acceptance of inclusive educational practices.

The results may also contribute to the design of information and awareness programs aimed at strengthening parental understanding and support for the inclusion of students with special educational needs.

References

Kalyva, E., & Georgiadi, M. (2004). Attitudes of mothers of typically developing children toward the inclusion of children with special needs. Conference presentation at The European Dimension of Special Education: The Emergence of an Alternative Philosophy.

Kalyva, E., Georgiadi, M., & Tsakiris, V. (2007). The attitudes of Greek parents of typically developing primary schoolchildren towards inclusion. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 22, 295–305.

Stoiber, K. C., Gettinger, M., & Goetz, D. (1998). Exploring factors influencing parents’ and early childhood practitioners’ beliefs about inclusion. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13, 107–124.