The Effect of Movement Games on the Level of Physical Fitness and Mental Health of Students with Disabilities: Mixed Method

Abstract

Study purpose. This study aims to investigate the effects of movement games as an effort to increase the level of physical fitness and mental health of students with disabilities during COVID-19. Materials and methods. This study adopted a mixed method. The participants involved in this study were students with disabilities who came from two special schools students with disabilities in Karawang Regency, Indonesia (n=40). Participants were divided into an experimental group who carried out a movement game program (n=20) and a control group (n=20) who followed routine learning without participating in any activities. After implementing the movement game program, 20 participants were interviewed about the experiences, advantages and disadvantages of the movement game program. Quantitative research instruments used muscular strength, muscular endurance and cardiorespiratory fitness tests. Meanwhile, the qualitative research instrument used in-depth interviews for 30 minutes. Analysis of quantitative data used IBM SPSS, and analysis of qualitative data used thematic analysis. Results. The quantitative study results showed that there was a significant increase in the level of physical fitness and mental health in the experimental group (p<0.05), and no increase was found in the control group (p>0.05). In addition, the qualitative study results showed that the majority of participants acknowledged that the movement game program was a fun method of education and had a positive effectiveness. Conclusions. After carrying out this research, we confirm that the movement game activity is an education method that has a great effect on the increase in the physical fitness level and mental health of students with disabilities during COVID-19.