The Cross Validation of the Attitudes Toward Mainstreaming Scale (ATMS

Abstract

The eighteen-statement Attitudes Toward Mainstreaming Scale (ATMS) was cross validated through a principal axis factor analysis procedure. The 159 subjects comprising the original sample and the 164 subjects comprising the cross-validation sample included both preservice students and inservice teachers representing seventeen teaching fields. The same three factors, named Learning Capability, General Mainstreaming, and Traditional Limiting Disabilities, emerged from the analysis of each sample. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients for the total scale were .89 and .88 for the two samples ; those for the factors ranged from .76 to .84. Pearson correlations between individual factors and total scale scores ranged from .81 to .86 with factor intercorrelations ranging from .42 to .55. These results seem to indicate that enough evidence exists concerning the reliability and factorial validity of this scale to justify the use of the ATMS in further studies of attitudes toward mainstreaming.