The Effect of Exercise on Anxiety of Adolescents with Intellectual Disability

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of exercise on the anxiety of&nbsp;adolescents with intellectual disability. Methods: Study method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and a control&nbsp;group. The study population included all secondary students with intellectual disability in Shiraz&nbsp;City in the academic year 2012-2013. The sample size consisted of 30 secondary students with&nbsp;intellectual disability selected by available sampling method. They were randomly divided into&nbsp;experimental and control groups (15 students in each group). Both groups took the pretest. The&nbsp;experimental group received exercise training in 8 sessions while control group did not. Aftercompletion of intervention period, the posttest was administered for both groups. The Zung selfrating&nbsp;anxiety scale was administered to assess the anxiety. Results: The data analyses by analysis of covariance ANCOVA and multivariate analysis of&nbsp;covariance (MANCOVA) showed that the mean scores of anxiety and its subscales (emotional&nbsp;and physical signs of anxiety) were significantly lower in experimental group (P<0.01). Conclusion: Findings indicated that exercise intervention leads to decrease in the anxiety.&nbsp;Therefore, we suggest designing and implementing exercise programs to decrease the anxiety of&nbsp;students with intellectual disability.