Unravelling the link between physical activity and peer social connectedness in young people with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review of quantitative studies.
Use one of the 18 peer-social scales L et al. list to show your physical-activity program is actually building friendships for youth with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Greenlee et al. (2024) hunted for every paper that measured both physical activity and peer social connectedness in youth with intellectual disability.
They screened hundreds of studies and kept the ones with numbers. They pulled out every tool used to score friendships, acceptance, or belonging.
In the end they listed 10 kinds of social connectedness and 18 different checklists or surveys.
What they found
Most tools showed physical activity might help kids feel closer to peers, but the proof is thin.
No study ran the test the other way—seeing if better friendships lead to more movement.
Bottom line: we have plenty of rulers, but little hard evidence of which way the arrow points.
How this fits with other research
Pickard et al. (2019) and Healy et al. (2018) both found small-to-large social gains when kids with autism joined group sports. L et al. agree those gains can happen, but warn we still lack reverse checks.
Woodmansee et al. (2016) show youth with disabilities already play less. L et al. answer that problem by handing us 18 ready-made scales to track if a new program fixes the gap.
Lin et al. (2015) saw adolescents with ID move just as much in PE as peers, but stall during recess. L et al. say: use their listed tools to see if recess loneliness, not motor skill, is the real brake.
Why it matters
You can start measuring social pay-offs from day one instead of guessing. Pick one of the 18 peer-connectedness tools, add it to your baseline, and run it again after the soccer or dance unit ends. If scores rise alongside step counts, you have cheap proof the program is working for friendship as well as fitness.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: There is limited understanding of the context surrounding physical activity (PA) of young people with intellectual disabilities (ID), which has an impact on the development of PA promotion programmes. Peer social connectedness seems to be a vital correlate to focus on, but has not been included in current studies examining the correlates and determinants of PA levels of young people with ID. This study aims to synthesise the evidence on (1) the social constructs researchers have used to conceptualise peer social connectedness in a PA context among young people with ID, (2) the measurement tools that have been used and (3) the relationship between PA and peer social connectedness in young people with ID. METHODS: The review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, ERIC, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched from 1 January 1996 up to, and including, July 2023 to identify English-language studies, which examined associations between PA and peer social connectedness in adolescents and young adults (13-24 years) with ID. Study quality was assessed using the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields. RESULTS: Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Ten peer social connectedness constructs and 18 measurement instruments were identified. Studies were predominantly focused on Special Olympics participants and unified activity formats. Participation in PA can increase social connectedness, but there is a lack of studies examining whether PA can also be increased by focusing on peer social connectedness in young people with ID. CONCLUSIONS: Results show that peer social connectedness is recognised as relevant to researchers developing and testing PA programmes for young people with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2024 · doi:10.1111/jir.13095