Development of school-age children's stereotypic attitudes toward mentally retarded children

The developmental changes in the structure of attitudes toward mentally retarded children in elementary-school-aged students were investigated. Four orthogonal factors characterized their responses: General Negative Evaluation, General Positive Evaluation, Likeability, and Unhappiness. For the most part, increased age was associated with a decrease in negative stereotypes and an increase in a specific stereotype. The results were discussed in terms of contradictory findings in previous attitudinal research.