Effect of Yoga on Self-Disclosure and Automatic Negative Thoughts among Adolescents with Visual Impairment

Abstract

Disability is a challenge for the stakeholders since the early days, the area has gained interest in many disciplines. Visual impairment is the type of disability that affects the ability to sense and interpret visual cues. Adolescents with visual impairment face many difficulties in their life due to their restricted senses. This has a serious impact on their personality and mental health. Self-disclosure is the tendency of individuals to share personal information with others. Automatic Negative Thoughts are quick sudden thoughts with negativity that may or may not have a cause. A study was conducted on 84 adolescents (36 girls + 48 boys) with congenital visual impairment to assess the effect of yoga practices (Asana and pranayama) on Self- Disclosure and Automatic Negative Thoughts.The sample was purposively selected. Aone- hour program of yoga was given by a trained coach for especially abled for 2 months to the subjects. Self-disclosure inventory by Sinha (2003) and the Automatic Thought questionnaire by Hollen and Kendal (1980) were used to get the scores.Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to calculate the results. A Significant difference was found between the scores of participants of the experimental group, pre and post- yoga sessions. But no significant difference was seen in the scores of the control group.