Understanding posttraumatic growth of paratriathletes with acquired disability

From minding the gap to widening the gap: Paralympic athletes' experiences of wellbeing during the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 games

In March 2020, it was announced that the Tokyo Games would be postponed for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While athletes commonly face challenges in sport such as injuries, the pandemic and rescheduling of the Games was an unexpected event that had serious potential to challenge the psychological wellbeing of athletes. Furthermore, it was an event that was simultaneously experienced by all athletes preparing for the Games. It provided a novel opportunity to explore how athletes navigated this challenging environment and the subsequent potential impact on their psychological wellbeing. It also provided a unique opportunity to engage para-athletes and explore how they experienced the pandemic and postponement. This manuscript draws on a larger qualitative study of 21 Canadian athletes (14 Olympic and seven Paralympic) who were on target to compete at the 2020 Games when the postponement was announced. For this manuscript, we focus on the accounts of seven Paralympic hopefuls and their experiences of adjusting to the postponement, while attending to the unique social identities of athletes with disabilities. Adopting a constructionist lens, semi-structured interviews were conducted at two time points. Through reflexive thematic analysis, we developed three themes. "We are all in the same boat. . . or are we?" describes the Paralympic hopefuls experiences early in the pandemic and how they felt united by the Canadian response to withdraw from the Games. It then discusses how, over time, they started to understand athletes with disabilities were being inequitably impacted by the pandemic and related public health measures. "Maybe it means more to them than us" examines how their perceptions changed as they acknowledged that although all athletes were facing a disruption to their sport careers, the implications were not the same for all. "Vulnerability and the Paralympic athlete" addresses how Paralympic athletes engaged with societal narratives about risk, vulnerability and disability and what this meant for the Paralympic Movement's response to the pandemic. "Honestly, I've experienced it before" examines how the Paralympic hopefuls drew on past experiences of injury to navigate the pandemic and the protective impact on their psychological wellbeing. Findings shed light on how systemic ableism interacted with the pandemic to magnify feelings of inferiority and further marginalization but also how para-athletes drew on past experiences to navigate challenges to their psychological wellbeing.

Cognitive processing following acquired disability for para sport athletes: a serial mediation model

Purpose: To understand the cognitive processing that occurs in relation to a disabling life event among para sport athletes, as well as the role of para sport participation in shaping these cognitions, and subsequent perceptions of posttraumatic growth or distress.Methods: Participants were 75 para sport athletes with acquired disability. Serial multiple mediation analysis was conducted to identify the various pathways through which posttraumatic growth or distress is experienced.Results: Findings suggested that a disabling event initiated challenges to one's core beliefs which influenced subsequent perceptions of posttraumatic growth and distress through cognitive processing at two separate time frames. Moreover, the utility of deliberate rumination (at both time points) was evident in experiencing posttraumatic growth, while intrusive rumination only appeared beneficial if it prompted deliberate ruminations.Conclusions: As several unique paths to posttraumatic growth were found, results suggest that a multitude of paths to growth may be possible. Para sport participation may have utility in facilitating deliberate ruminations and subsequent posttraumatic growth for those unable to deliberately ruminate in the immediate disability aftermath.Implications for rehabilitationAs challenges to core beliefs triggered ruminative thoughts that ultimately facilitated PTG, practitioners are encouraged to explicitly ask patients about how the adverse event might have influenced patients' self-perceptions and views about the meaning of life. Such questions may be revisited from injury onset throughout recovery and rehabilitation.Rehabilitation specialists should inform patients that intrusive ruminations may be salient in the post-trauma aftermath, but that such rumination may be facilitative if it gives way to more deliberate forms of rumination.Attempts to understand the meaning of a traumatic event may be instrumental in alleviating distress.Health practitioners should encourage individuals suffering physically disabling events to engage in activities such as para sport, given its potential to facilitate deliberate rumination and subsequent posttraumatic growth.

Analysis of the Coverage of Paratriathlon and Paratriathletes in Canadian Newspapers

From recreational to elite levels, sport has many benefits for disabled people. At the same time, it is acknowledged that there is a trickle-down problem from para-elite sport to sport participation of disabled people, in general. Newspapers are one form of media that sets agendas and influences public opinion. Many studies have highlighted problematic aspects of parasport and para-athlete coverage in newspapers. Paratriathlon was one of two new events added to the Paralympics in Rio 2016, which increased its visibility in the public domain. We investigated the coverage of paratriathlon and paratriathletes in 300 Canadian newspapers using the ProQuest database Canadian Newsstream as a source, and utilizing a descriptive quantitative and a qualitative thematic content analysis. The main themes evident in the reporting on paratriathlon and paratriathletes, in the three hundred Canadian newspapers we covered, were the supercrip imagery of the para-athlete, personal stories mostly linked to the supercrip imagery, and the theme of able-bodied athletes in juxtaposition to the para-athletes. Using the lens of the four legacy goals of the International Paralympic Committee, we conclude that our findings are detrimental to the fulfillment of the four legacy goals.

From core belief challenge to posttraumatic growth in para sport athletes: moderated mediation by needs satisfaction and deliberate rumination

Purpose: To examine how deliberate rumination and psychological need satisfaction interact to facilitate posttraumatic growth for para sport athletes with acquired disability. Methods: Utilizing a sample of 70 para sport athletes, the hypothesized mediating role of deliberate rumination was examined via a simple mediation model. The interaction between needs satisfaction and deliberate rumination and their effect on posttraumatic growth was examined utilizing a moderated mediation procedure. Results: Disruption to one's core beliefs was significantly associated with posttraumatic growth. This relationship, was in part, explained by the deliberate rumination engaged in soon after the trauma. Needs satisfaction, while a significant predictor of posttraumatic growth, did not moderate the indirect effect. Conclusions: Although deliberate rumination at both timeframes and needs satisfaction were independently associated with posttraumatic growth, they did not interact in the hypothesized manner to influence posttraumatic growth. There remains a need to better understand how the experience of posttraumatic growth is achieved amongst individuals with acquired disability, and the role that para sport may play in this process. Implications for rehabilitation The disruption to one's core beliefs caused by acquiring a physical disability is not only a natural experience but also a necessary antecedent to posttraumatic growth. As such, rehabilitation practitioners ought to normalize these types of challenges when working with individuals with acquired disability. Practitioners may help to facilitate growth outcomes by encouraging individuals to deliberately ruminate about their acquired disability. That is, practitioners can help those with acquired disability to seek meaning and understanding about their disability or the precipitating event. For those who struggle to deliberately ruminate in the immediate disability aftermath, practitioners may encourage para sport participation to potentially prompt constructive cognitive processing. Individuals with acquired disabilities would also be well served by rehabilitation practitioners and para sport organizations that provide opportunities for basic psychological needs satisfaction. Specifically, individuals with acquired disabilities should be given the opportunity to demonstrate physical competence, make meaningful relationships, and feel a sense of volitional control over their rehabilitation or para sport participation. For example, practitioners and para sport organizations could establish mentorship programs wherein individuals with more recent disabilities can be mentored by those with greater disability experience.