Attitudes of primary school children toward the physical appearance and labels associated with Down syndrome.

Attitudes of 80 kindergarten and 80 third-grade subjects responding to videotape excerpts of children either with or without Down syndrome and with or without the label and description "mentally retarded" were examined and affect, belief endorsements, and behavioral intentions were assessed. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that subjects were significantly less positive in their affective evaluations and belief endorsements toward target children labeled and described as mentally retarded. Third-grade children were significantly more negative in their affective responses toward children with Down syndrome, and kindergarten children were more positive in their evaluations of such children. Possible reasons for the lack of significant gender and contact differences were discussed.