Comparison of Depression and Anxiety of Students with Visual Impairment in Daily and Residential Educational Settings

Vision, plays an essential role in the process of development and segregated as well as integrated educational settings in the process of education have different outcomes. The present study, therefore, intended to compare level of depression and anxiety of blind students in daily and residential educational settings.
The statistical population consisted of all blind high school students in Tehran covered by the Organization of Special Education. Eighty students were selected from the whole population as the sample of the study and were placed in four groups of 20 (two female and two male groups). Half of the participants studied in daily high schools and half others were in residential high schools. In this causal-comparative study, Beck's depression scale and Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used for measuring level of depression and anxiety of blind students. In order to investigate the effect of educational setting (daily versus residential) on the level of depression and anxiety of students, two-way ANOVA was used. For measuring the predictive ability of variables multivariate regression analysis was run.
The results revealed that students of residential schools were less depressed and more anxious, while gender differences of depression and anxiety were non-significant. Also findings indicated that there is a negative relationship between duration of residence in residential center and blind student's depression.
Since the level of depression and anxiety between two groups of students in daily and residential educational settings were significantly different, therefore, the results of the present study can be used to improve mental health of students with visual impairment.