Abstract:

Parents are always the closest people of individuals with mental disabilities. Therefore, awareness level of parents regarding the effects of sports becomes essential. The purpose of present study is to determine the awareness level of parents that have children with mental disability, and descriptive survey model was applied in the study. Totally 101 parents (66 mother, 35 father) that have children with mental disability in different levels participated in the study voluntarily. “Personal Information Form”, which was prepared by researches, and “Awareness Scale Regarding Effects of Sport on Persons with Intellectual Disabilities Form”, which was prepared by İlhan and Esentürk (2015), were utilized for each participant. After data collection procedure was completed, data transferred to computer and parametric tests (t-test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (One-Way ANOVA)) were conducted for analysis and interpretation. According to analysis, as results of analyzes, there was no significant difference with regard to parent’s gender; however, awareness level of mothers which have children with mild mental retardation was significantly higher than awareness level of fathers which have children with mild mental retardation. Also, awareness level of parents whose children are athlete was significantly higher than other parents. Moreover, it was determined that awareness level of parents increased depending on income and education level of parents in parallel.

Keywords: