2006 Volume 3 Pages 29-32
The purpose of this study was to examine the anxieties of athletes with intellectual disabilities during a competitive sports training camp. The subjects were 9 male athletes who participated for the national team of the Japan Basketball Federation for Players with Intellectual Disabilities. All of them were categorized into the mild mental retardation according to the criteria of the DSM-IV-TR. The state of anxiety was measured by the Japanese version of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Although the state anxiety scores were higher at the beginning of the camp and lower at closing, the two sets of scores were not statistically different (p = 0.487). This result would indicate that the training camp did not cause serious anxiety. The reasons for the results were speculated that comradery between the players reduced their anxiety in during the severe training camp, and the low state-anxiety scores at the closing could be ascribed to the relief at the camp closing. Only a few of the subjects showed high state-anxiety scores or trait-anxiety scores at the closing of the camp. These players could reduce their anxieties through the care of their key persons or psychiatrists. The results of this study assessed by measuring STAI were based on the level of anxiety that the athletes with intellectual disabilities had during competitive sports training. This suggests STAI could be a useful tool for developing good training programs for players and assessing anxieties of players' daily life.
