title: Resilience in competitive athletes with spinal cord injury: the role of sport participation.
abstract: Individuals who experience loss of their physical abilities often face the challenges of adapting to a new way of life. Past research has shown that sport participation can assist the physical and psychological adaptation to acquired physical disabilities. The purposes of our study were to examine the following: (a) the resilience process of sport participants with acquired spinal cord injury, and (b) the role of sport participation in the resilience process. We conducted semistructured phenomenological interviews with 12 male quadriplegic wheelchair rugby players. Results show that the development of resilience is a multifactorial process involving pre-existing factors and pre-adversity experiences, disturbance/disturbing emotions, various types and sources of social support, special opportunities and experiences, various behavioral and cognitive coping strategies, motivation to adapt to changes, and learned attributes or gains from the resilience process. We discuss implications for future research and practice.
authors.affiliation: Juntendo University, School of Health and Sports Science, Inzai, Chiba, Japan. m.machida@sakura.juntendo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Moe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Machida
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Irwin
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feltz
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D036301:Qualitative Research; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012944:Social Support; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D029181:Spirituality; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States
keywords: coping and adaptation; disability / disabled persons; exercise / physical activity; resilience; social support; spinal cord injury