Sport and self-concept of persons with intellectual disability

The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the effectiveness of sport in promoting positive development of the self-concept of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PID). In particular, we look into 2 major sport events catered specifically to PID, namely, the Special Olympics (SO) and Unified Sports (UNS). We begin by discussing the definition and development of self-concept, followed by a review of studies looking at the positive and negative implications of sport on PID’s self-concept. This paper seeks to resolve the contradictions found in current literature by analysing the characteristics of the 2 major sport events (i.e. SO and UNS). It was found that studies that were conducted in the context of UNS gave positive findings (i.e. sport promotes development of PID’s positive self-concept). From these findings, the structure of UNS is analysed and it is proposed in this paper that integrated team sport and equal distribution of persons with and without intellectual disability in a team, are 2 characteristics that ought to be present in order for sport to be effective in improving the self- concept of PID. In order to study the development of positive self-concept during participation in sport, we considered 2 processes, namely, social comparison and feedback from the public, and how the 2 characteristics moderate the effects of these 2 processes.Bachelor of Art