Improving Special Olympics volunteers’ self-esteem and attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disability

ABSTRACT

Background: Information regarding how the Special Olympics programs affect volunteers’ self-esteem and attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disability (ID) is limited. We conducted a quasi-experimental study to address this gap.

Method: The intervention group participants (n = 120) were Chinese volunteers for the Special Olympics Eunice Kennedy Shriver University Day. They were asked to attend a pre-service training program and provide a half-day service. Results were compared with a control group (n = 123).

Results: Our findings showed that the volunteers’ self-esteem and attitudes immediately improved after intervention. In addition, change in participants’ self-esteem contributed to their positive attitude change.

Conclusions: The Special Olympics may provide an avenue for promoting the volunteers’ self-esteem and attitudes regarding inclusion towards individuals with ID. Future research should include follow-up tests to examine the lasting effects of intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Developmental disability
• inclusion
• intervention
• university
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. We would also like to thank all of study participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Chunxiao Li http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9959-5029

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science under the National Social Science Fund [grant number 15BTY071] and The Education University of Hong Kong under the HPE Block Grant [grant number 014183].