Comparison of depression and anxiety in elementary students with intellectual disability, blindness, deafness and physical mobility disability

This research aimed to compare depression and anxiety in elementary students with intellectual disability, blindness, deafness and physical mobility disability. This research was considered as a causal-comparative study. The statistical population included all elementary students with intellectual disability, blindness, deafness and physical mobility disability of Urmia province during 2016-17 academic years. From among them 26 blind, 34 deaf, 39 physical mobility disable and 40 intellectual disable students were selected using available sampling method. Mothers of all students completed the anxiety, Depression and Mode Scale (Esbensen & et al, 2003) about their children. The data was analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance and LSD post hoc test. Findings: The finding indicated the depression mean of intellectual disability and physical mobility disability groups significantly was higher than blind and deaf groups, but there was no significant difference between depression mean of intellectual disability group with physical mobility disability group and blind group with deaf group. The mean depression of physical mobility disability group significantly was higher than blind and deaf groups. Also, the anxiety mean of intellectual disability group significantly was higher than physical mobility disability and blind groups, but there was no significant difference between anxiety mean of intellectual disability and deaf groups. The anxiety mean of physical mobility disability group significantly was lower than deaf group, but there was no significant difference between anxiety mean of physical mobility disability and blind groups. In addition there was no significant difference between depression mean and anxiety of blind and deaf groups (P≤0/05). Regarding the results, students with intellectual disability and physical mobility disability in comparison to blind and deaf students need more psychological services especially in the field of programs that reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Therefore, school counselors should provide teachers with necessary knowledge about the difference between students and reduce students' symptoms of depression and anxiety through workshops at the proper time.