Phobia in Students with and without Intellectual Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare phobia frequency and its severity in Students with and without Intellectual Disabilities (ID) in Shiraz.

In this cross sectionalanalytical study, 140 students (70 normal and 70 students with ID) were selected by a multi phasic sampling method. Phobia evaluation was done using a test constructed and applied by H. Bahrami (2000).

t-test, 2 Way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation test showed that the difference of phobia severity and its frequency was not significant between the two groups (p>0.05). It was observed that all types of phobia was significantly higher in girls than boys (p<0.001).

Among all types of fears, fear of assistant administrator was higher in students with ID, and fear of failure in education and life was higher in normal students. The severity of fear was higher in fear of crowded place, crossing the street, fights, sharp things and fire among students with ID and severity of fear of sickness, failure in education and life was higher among normal students.