Effects of Special Olympics participation on community integration among school-aged participants with mild to moderate cognitive disability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the amount of community integration between an experimental Special Olympics participant group and a control group comprised of non-Special Olympics participants. Fifteen school-aged (8-18) subjects (7M, 8F) made up the experimental group and fifteen subjects (6M, 9F) made up the control group. The Special Olympics group was equally matched with the non-Special Olympics group in regards to sex, age and intellectual characteristics. The comparisons were based on measures from a thirty-minute interview devised by Malik, Ashton-Schaeffer, and Kleiber (1991).