Effects of integrated or segregated sport participation on the physical self for adolescents with intellectual disabilities.

Researchers compared two swim groups for teens with intellectual disability. One group practiced with typical peers. The other group practiced only with other ID students.

Both groups trained at the same pool. Coaches tracked swim times and gave the teens a short survey about how athletic they felt.

The integrated group got faster in the water. Yet those same kids said, "I am not good at sports."

The segregated group kept the same slow times. Their sport-confidence stayed flat.

Overall self-worth did not move in either group.

Grégor et al. (2007) ran almost the same study two years later. They saw the same drop in athletic confidence after mixed teams. The pattern held 21 months later, so the dip is not a one-day mood.

McGeown et al. (2013) looked at Special Olympics Unified teams across five countries. They found kids felt more included and made new friends. Their work extends the 2005 paper: mixed sport can help social life even while it dents athletic self-views.

Bondár et al. (2020) pooled adults with ID. Exercise raised self-efficacy when staff gave personal cues. The adult data hint that support, not the sport itself, may protect self-concept.

If you run mixed PE or after-school clubs, check self-confidence as often as you check skill data. A teen may swim faster yet feel worse. Add brief pep talks, peer models, or goal charts that show personal progress. These low-cost supports can keep the social gains of inclusion without the self-concept cost.