Exploring physical self-concept perceptions in athletes with intellectual disabilities: the participation of Unified Sports experiences

Abstract

Objectives

Self-description research on athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) is under investigated. The specific aims in this paper are (a) to identify the differences in physical self-concept and body image by Unified Sports experiences, and (b) to investigate predictors of physical self-concept.

Methods

Participants included 89 Special Olympics athletes who had Unified Sports experiences (USE, n = 43) and those without USE (n = 46). Demographic, anthropometric, self-description data were collected during the questionnaire interview and physical examination. Analyses included descriptive and regression modeling to determine differences in the psychological attributes by USE and best subsets of predictors of each physical self-concept construct.

Results

The findings suggest that the participation of USE facilitated greater sport competence and there is no single predictor across the six physical self-concept constructs.

Conclusion

The findings provide evidence that sports participation may have positive impacts on physical self-concept toward athletes with ID.

Keywords:

• self-description
• physical self-concept
• body image
• Special Olympics
• Unified Sports
• intellectual disabilities