Seated Athletes' Motivation For Participation In Wheelchair Sports: A Qualitative Study

The purpose for this phenomenological design qualitative analysis was to gain an understanding of the perspectives of seated athletes’ motivation for participation in adapted athletics and argues that there is a component of seating that affects motivation. Occupational therapists build client interventions using meaningful occupations. This study aimed to increase awareness of adapted athletics impact on occupational performance. There was a gap in the literature for qualitative research exploring the lens of adapted sports participation through the perspective of seated athletes. This study utilized one-time individual semi-structured interviews with five participants that currently participate on a wheelchair court sports team to gain an understanding of perspectives on motivation for adapted sports participation. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed, and thematic analysis was used to discover emerging themes. The results of this study included the discovery of four themes: identity, community, sport chair and classification, and health and self-improvement. Findings suggest that participation in adapted athletics may lead to improvements in self-perceived identity and independence, development of supportive communities, and improved motivation for optimizing wheelchair use. Results of this study suggest that adapted sports participation may improve occupational performance for wheelchair users. The results from this study may support the use of adapted sports participation in occupational therapy practice for wheelchair bound individuals.