The Role of Sport in Acceptance of Disability and Resilience

Abstract

It is claimed that sport is an influential mechanism that could withstand against a great many negativities with regard to life for disabled people. To this end, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between the acceptance of disability and resilience levels of athletes and non-athletes. The group of the research was made up of 140 athletes and 165 non-athletes (90 female, 215 male). In this study, which was designed in a descriptive research model, Acceptance Disability Scale (ADS) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) were used as the data collection tools. It was found that both the acceptance of disability and the resilience levels of athletes were high compared to disabled ones and that there was a significant difference (p<0.01). In addition, it has been understood that the average scores of individuals who are successful in international competitions are higher than those who are successful in national competitions. It was concluded that there is a good level of positive relationship between acceptance of disability and resilience levels. As a result, the sport seemed to affect both acceptance of disability and resilience significantly.