title: A systematic literature review of the physical and psychosocial correlates of Special Olympics participation among individuals with intellectual disability.
abstract: Special Olympics (SO) is commonly cited to play an important role in the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). The purpose of the current review was to (a) synthesise key findings regarding the physical, psychological/emotional, social and/or intellectual/cognitive correlates of SO participation for individuals with ID and (b) highlight limitations in the extant research as well as directions for future research.
  
  
  
  A systematic review of electronic databases was undertaken. A total of 46 articles were confirmed to meet study criteria. Quality assessments of included studies were conducted using checklists from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network methodology checklists (SIGN 50; SIGN 2008).
  
  
  
  There was a larger amount of support for physical, psychological/emotional and social outcomes as compared with cognitive/intellectual outcomes; however, many studies were confounded by measurement difficulties, sampling procedures and a lack of replicable methods, which hinder generalisation of results.
  
  
  
  This review highlights the need for a continued critical focus on SO programme evaluation research with more rigorous and replicable methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tint
authors.affiliation: Centre for Applied Disability Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D019989:Persons with Intellectual Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Special Olympics; intellectual disability; sport