Differences in Sportspersonship between Athletes with Disabilities and Able-bodied Athletes

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the sportspersonship of Greek athletes with physical disabilities and able-bodied athletes. Sportspersonship differences across gender, age and sport were investigated as well. The sample consisted of 198 athletes with a mean age 24.72 (±11.62) years old, of which 99 were able-bodied athletes and 99 were athletes with physical disabilities. The questionnaires used was the Multidimensional Sports-personship Orientation Scale questionnaire (Vallerand, Brriere, Blanchard, & Provencher, 1997) as adapted by Zarotis (2008) in Greek population, which consisted of 11 questions and examined three factors: “respect towards the social rules”, “respect towards the opponent” and “respect the principles of the sport”. The results indicated that there were significant differences between athletes with disabilities and able-bodies athletes. The athletes with physical disabilities paid higher respect to the opponent comparing to the able-bodied athletes. Significant differences were found, in favor of women comparing to men athletes, with regard to the factor “respecting the principles of the sport” (F=7.06, p=.009, η2=.035). As far as the age is concerned, the results showed no statistical significance between in both categories (F=1.72, p=.17, η2=.026). There was statistically significant difference for the factor “respect towards the opponent”, in favor of the group over 20 years old. With regard to athletic experience, the results showed no statistically significant differences between the two teams. Statistically significant difference was found only for the second factor “respect the principles of the sport” (F=6.203, p=.014, η2=.014) in favor of the group with sports experience of 2 to 7 years. Based on the results and the discussion of the study, the following conclusions were revealed: (a) the athletes with disabilities indicated higher levels of sportspersonship comparing to able-bodied athletes, (b) the male athletes had lower levels of sportspersonship than the female athletes, (c) the athletes over 20 years old had higher levels of sportspersonship comparing to ones under the age of 20, (d) the athletes with sports experience less than 7 years had higher levels of sportspersonship comparing to athletes with experience more than 7 years, (e) the male and female athletes with disabilities had any differences between them as for sportspersonship.