, one-way ANOVAs were conducted on the two age groups for each of the following three scales: (i) the Child’s Disability Knowledge scale, (ii) the Child’s Interests and Activities scale, and (iii) the Parent’s Interests and Activities Encouraged scale. Children 9–11 years have significantly more knowledge, F(1, 74) = 9.218, p < 0.01, and fewer stereotypes, F(1, 74) = 6.948, p = 0.01, about disability than children 6–8 years. Parent’s encouragement of interest or cultural activities was significantly higher in older children, F(1, 74) = 5.365, p < 0.05. No significant interaction was found between parent’s encouragement of interest or cultural activities and child’s disability knowledge.
The typology of the beliefs: the explanatory coherence
Reasons why people with and without disabilities encounter difficulties in life differed significantly across age groups (children 6–8 years, 9–11 years, and parents). Results are at the group level and not at the individual difference level. In order to draw a more accurate difference profile, two composite measures of consistency between the models were built, by combining the responses related to the individual and social model in the open-ended and closed-ended questions (S2 File–Details of Measure). The composite measure created on the frequency scale of the open-ended responses range from a minimum to a maximum value of -3 to +3, where the highest score indicated a higher frequency of use of the individual model. Based on these consistency measures, typologies were then created in which participants were divided into four groups: (i) social/no individual model; (ii) individual and social model; (iii) individual/no social model; (iv) neither (Figs 3 and 4).
Children aged 6–8 years (N = 38) preferred exclusively the individual model and all children significantly more than parents (p < 0.01). No children adhered to the social/no individual model, conversely to the parents who strongly (p < 0.01) preferred it. The social and individual model was significantly (p < 0.05) preferred by parents compared to their children. The class “neither” gathered very few preferences among groups (Fig 3). This last result was challenged by the adhesions calculated on the basis of answers to the closed-ended questionnaires, where the “neither” class received the highest consent between groups without difference among groups (Fig 4).
In addition, the adherence to the individual model collapsed vertically with respect to the open-ended in all groups, with no differences among them, whereas the number of those who preferred the social model increased with age (p < 0.05).
Pearson’s correlation between the two composite measures (4 composite models: neither, social and individual, social/no individual, individual/no social x open- and closed-ended questionnaires) revealed: (i) a significant (p = 0.05) positive correlation between individual/no social in open-ended and “neither” in closed-ended and (ii) negative correlation (p < 0.05) between individual/no social in open-ended and social/no individual in closed-ended.
Children’s and parents’ models and custom complex variables
In order to test the relationship between the children’s custom complex—i.e., the interconnected practices, beliefs, and values in which the child is embedded —and their disability model choices, correlations between children and parents’ model choices and (i) Child’s Disability Knowledge, (ii) Child’s Interests and Activities scale, and (iii) the Parent’s Interests and Activities Encouraged scales were carried out. Two consistency scales for parental models for each type of answer (open and closed) were created ranging from -3 to +3. Scores were obtained by subtracting the values obtained on the social model by the ones of the individual model. We proposed, in the Introduction, that the two models are theoretically polarized in a unique conceptual line so that the more an individual prefers a social model of disability the less likely they are to prefer the individual, and vice-versa. Two separate correlations were carried out for 