{"title":"\"Now We Can Speak\": Wheelchair Sport Participation in Areas of Armed Conflict.","authors":"T N Kirk, Cathy McKay, Katherine Holland","doi":"10.1123/apaq.2023-0144","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study sought to understand the lived experiences of wheelchair basketball athletes from low- and middle-income countries of recent or current armed conflict and the meaning that they ascribed to their participation. Wheelchair basketball athletes (N = 108) from eight national teams participated in semistructured focus-group interviews. Study data were analyzed thematically using an interpretive descriptive approach. Three themes were developed: \"I can do anything I want; not only basketball,\" self-concept changes through sport participation; \"Now they see me as a respectable person,\" societal belonging through sport; and \"I have motivated other disabled people,\" influence on nonparticipating disabled persons. The findings indicated that participation in wheelchair sports may help disabled persons see themselves as capable individuals on the court and in aspects of daily living, perhaps even peer role models for other disabled persons in their communities and countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":55553,"journal":{"name":"Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly","volume":" ","pages":"555-572"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.2023-0144","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/10/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Print","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"REHABILITATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study sought to understand the lived experiences of wheelchair basketball athletes from low- and middle-income countries of recent or current armed conflict and the meaning that they ascribed to their participation. Wheelchair basketball athletes (N = 108) from eight national teams participated in semistructured focus-group interviews. Study data were analyzed thematically using an interpretive descriptive approach. Three themes were developed: "I can do anything I want; not only basketball," self-concept changes through sport participation; "Now they see me as a respectable person," societal belonging through sport; and "I have motivated other disabled people," influence on nonparticipating disabled persons. The findings indicated that participation in wheelchair sports may help disabled persons see themselves as capable individuals on the court and in aspects of daily living, perhaps even peer role models for other disabled persons in their communities and countries.
期刊介绍:
APAQ is an international, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal designed to stimulate and communicate scholarly inquiry relating to physical activity that is adapted in order to enable and enhance performance and participation in people with disability. Physical activity implies fine, gross, functional, and interpretive movement including physical education, recreation, exercise, sport, and dance. The focus of adaptation may be the activity or task that is to be performed, environment and facilities, equipment, instructional methodology, and/or rules governing the performance setting. Among the populations considered are persons with motor, intellectual, sensory, and mental or other disabilities across the life span. Disciplines from which scholarship to this aim may originate include, but are not limited to, physical education, teacher preparation, human development, motor behavior and learning, biomechanics, exercise and sport physiology, and exercise and sport psychology. Scientific inquiry may originate from quantitative or qualitative inquiry, as well as from multimethod designs.