Fidelity Criteria Development: Aligning Paralympic School Day With Contact Theory

The purpose of this study was to address contact theory as the theoretical basis of the Paralympic School Day (PSD) disability awareness program using a newly created fidelity of implementation instrument (fidelity criteria) to measure a single construct (contact theory), seeking to control and explain the manner in which PSD satisfied the four components of contact theory. Participants were 145 sixthgrade students who took part in PSD. Results determined that the PSD intervention supported the four theoretical components of contact theory, with statistically significant differences in student responses across all four indicators (p < .001). In addition, results determined that the fidelity criteria had strong test-retest reliability with internal consistency that was strong across time points (r = .829; p < .001). Results also determined that the four indicators of the instrument measured a single construct (one indicator significant at the p = .01 level and three indicators significant at the p = .001 level), thus, determining strong construct validity.