Special Olympics Unified Sports: Changes in Male Athletes During a Basketball Season

Abstract

The purpose was to describe the changes occurring in athletes with and without mental retardation (MR) during participation in a Special Olympics Unified Sports program. The method was evaluation research. Participants were 58 males (24 with MR, 34 without MR) in Grades 6-8. Before- and after-program data were collected on the Self-Esteem Inventory (Zigler, 1994), the Adjective Checklist (Siperstein, 1980), the Friendship Activity Scale (Siperstein, 1980), and the Basketball Sports Skills Assessment (Special Olympics, 1992). Athletes (Special Olympics Athletes and Partners) participated in an after-school basketball program for 8 weeks, 1.5 hr per session, three times per week. Dependent t tests revealed that each group scored significantly higher after participation in the program than before on all tests.