Middle School Student Intentions to Play with Peers with Disabilities in Physical Education: Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

The purpose of the study was to develop a scale measuring intentions of children without disabilities to play with a hypothetical peer with a physical disability in general physical education using the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50:179–211, 1991) and to provide evidence of reliability, content validity, and initial factor structure. A background questionnaire and a pilot version of the Children’s Intentions to Play with Peers with Disabilities in Middle-School Physical Education (CIPPD-MPE) were administered to a convenience sample of 250 middle school students. Content validity of CIPPD-MPE was established by seven content experts. Findings revealed four factors (behavioral beliefs, control beliefs, behavioral intention, and normative beliefs), which explained 58% of the variance. Internal consistency ranged between .65 and .92. All factors were significantly correlated with intention, indicating the potential of CIPPD-MPE to predict intention of children without disabilities to play with a hypothetical peer with a physical disability in GPE.