Effects of social behavior on children's attitudes toward their mildly and moderately mentally retarded peers.

The ability of prosocial behavior attributes to ameliorate the negative attitudes often brought about by negative personal characteristics associated with mild and moderate mental retardation was assessed. Subjects (191 nonretarded fourth through sixth-grade boys and girls) viewed a videotape of either a nonretarded, mildly retarded, or moderately retarded target child who was reading. They then were read a story depicting the target as either socially competent, withdrawn, or aggressive. On three measures, children in general responded favorably toward retarded target children who were socially competent, neutrally to withdrawn targets and negatively to aggressive targets. They were most positive to the nonretarded, socially competent targets and most negative to the nonretarded, aggressive targets, however. Prosocial behavior attributes had a positive effect on children's attitudes and behavioral intentions toward retarded targets. Implications for future research, social skills training, and mainstreaming were discussed.