Self-perception of dual career barriers and athletic identity in student-athletes with disabilities according to disability type and level of professionalization

• Published in: Scientific reports 2023-11, Vol.13 (1), p.20531-20531, Article 20531
• Main Authors: Maciá-Andreu, M. J., Vaquero-Cristóbal, R., Meroño, L., Abenza-Cano, L., García-Roca, J. A., Cánovas-Álvarez, F. J., Díaz-Aroca, A., Capranica, L., Stanescu, M., Pereira, A., Doupona, M., Mendes, F., Figueiredo, A., Isidori, E., Sánchez-Pato, A., Leiva-Arcas, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/477; 692/700; Athletes; Athletes with disabilities; Careers; Developmental disabilities; Disabilities; Disability; Disabled Persons; Hearing loss; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; multidisciplinary; Perception; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Self Concept; Self image; Sports; Student athletes; Students; Tires
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47881-4

The objective of this study was to analyze the perceived barriers to dual career success and athletic identity of student-athletes according to disability type and level of professionalization. The final sample consisted of 203 student-athletes with disabilities from five European countries. The questionnaires used were ESTPORT, EBBS and AIMS. Depending on disability type, it was found that student-athletes with hearing and physical impairment showed the highest difficulty in reconciling sports and studies (p = 0.001); that student-athletes with a hearing impairment showed the highest score in the barrier ‘the cost of education is high’ (p = 0.023); that student-athletes with a physical impairment had the highest scores in the barrier ‘Exercise tires me’ (p = 0.013); that student-athletes with cerebral palsy showed the highest scores in the barrier ‘I do not have enough university/educational institution support’ (p = 0.014) and ‘Exercise facilities do not have convenient timetables for me’ (p = 0.001). Depending on sports professionalization level, semi-professional student-athletes showed the highest values in the barrier ‘the university/educational institution is far from my training center’ (p = 0.040); while professional student-athletes had the highest score in the barrier ‘exercise takes too much time from family responsibilities’ (p = 0.034). In most of the variables related to identity as athletes, professional student-athletes showed the highest values, followed by semi-professional athletes (p = 0.043-