Investigation of awareness levels of families with children with autism spectrum disorders on the effects of sports

The purpose of this study is to investigate the awareness levels of families with children with autism spectrum disorders living in Turkey regarding the effects of sports. Based on the findings, the study aims to develop sports programs for individuals with autism. Participants were surveyed across 701 families, including mothers, fathers, siblings, and relatives of individuals with autism, based on demographic characteristics, and the relationships between them were examined. The Awareness of the Effects of Sports on Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities Scale (ZEBSEYFÖ), developed by İlhan and Esentürk, and 20 researcher created questions were used as data collection tools. The "ZEBSEYFÖ" Awareness of the Effects of Sports on Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities Scale, developed by İlhan and Esentürk (2015), was used. The 32-item, 5-point Likert-type scale includes "Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree." The highest possible score is 160, and the lowest is 32. Scores from the scale indicate high, moderate, and low levels of awareness. Those with scores between 118 and 160 have a high level of awareness, those with scores between 75 and 117 have a moderate level of awareness, and those with scores between 32 and 74 have a low level of awareness. Data in our study were analyzed using the IBM Statistics 23 statistical program. Data regarding the demographic characteristics of families are shown in frequency and percentage distributions. Reliability analyses were conducted for all scales. Independent Samples T-tests and One-Way ANOVA tests were then applied to test for differences between groups. The awareness score obtained from the scale in our study was determined to be 135.85, indicating that the participants had a high level of awareness. viii The results of this study revealed no significant difference between the awareness levels of families with children with autism spectrum disorders regarding the effects of sports based on gender (t(699) = -1.706, p>0.05). Significant differences were found between participants' age, sports participation status, occupation, education, monthly income level, consanguinity, family participation in a disability education program, presence of another disability group in the family/relative, their views on the importance given to people with disabilities, their views on whether the salary given to people with disabilities is spent appropriately, their views on the impact of sports on people with disabilities, their views on the adequacy of sports activities for people with disabilities, their views on the occurrence of violence against people with disabilities, and whether families show sufficient interest in their children with disabilities participating in sports (p<0.05). Keywords: Awareness.Autism, Mentally Disabled, Sports