Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of exercise on the anxiety of adolescents with intellectual disability.
Methods: Study method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and a control group. The study population included all secondary students with intellectual disability in Shiraz City in the academic year 2012-2013. The sample size consisted of 30 secondary students with intellectual disability selected by available sampling method. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (15 students in each group). Both groups took the pretest. The experimental group received exercise training in 8 sessions while control group did not. Aftercompletion of intervention period, the posttest was administered for both groups. The Zung selfrating anxiety scale was administered to assess the anxiety.
Results: The data analyses by analysis of covariance ANCOVA and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that the mean scores of anxiety and its subscales (emotional and physical signs of anxiety) were significantly lower in experimental group (P<0.01).
Conclusion: Findings indicated that exercise intervention leads to decrease in the anxiety. Therefore, we suggest designing and implementing exercise programs to decrease the anxiety of students with intellectual disability.