The aim of this study is to compare and analyze the stress levels of parents who have children with intellectual disability who play and do not play sports. In this study, one of the quantitative research approaches, the causal-comparative research design was used in order to determine the stress level of the participants. 147 parents who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study were included in the study by using the purposeful sampling method .The study group of the research consists of the parents of 147 individuals with mild intellectual disability who attend special education rehabilitation centers and do sports as private athletes within sports clubs in Malatya and Muş provinces. The 'Personal Information Form' was used to determine the demographic information of the participants, and the 'Family Stress Assessment Scale', which was adapted into Turkish by Kaner (2001), was used to determine the stress levels. The determination of the stress level among the participant groups was made by comparing functional disability, pessimism and the sub-dimensions of family problems, and the total score. Mann-Whitney U Test was used for the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the findings obtained from the analyzes, it was determined that mothers direct their children to sports more than fathers. It has been determined that there are statistically significant differences in favor of the group whose child does not play sports in the functional disability, pessimism dimensions and the total score of the family stress scale between the parents whose children do sports and those whose children do not participate in sports, and there is no significant difference between the two groups in the sub-dimensions of family problems. As a result of the research it can be said that parents whose children do sports experience less stress than parents whose children do not do sports. Based on the results of the research, it can be said that in the social support programs to be carried out to reduce the stress levels of families with children with intellectual disabilities, programs for the participation of these parents’s children in sports should be emphasized.

Participation in sports, family stress, intellectual disability.