Hopefulness and Meaning in Adults With Disabilities' Physical Activity: A Qualitative Study

Purpose/Objective: The body of knowledge regarding the processes involved in changing physical activity behaviors in people with disabilities is very limited. This qualitative study is a follow-up to a pilot study on an individualized health coaching intervention for adults with any type of disabilities, titled Health My Way, that used a disability-specific health-promotion curriculum. In the original study, we found that participants in the health coaching intervention experienced improved health-promoting behavior, notably physical activity. In the current follow-up study, we examined the relationships among participants' personal sense of meaning and hope and the physical activity change process. Research Method/Design: Participants (n = 12) were a subset of participants from the original pilot study, who were adults with any type of disability, recruited by convenience sampling. These participants completed in-depth interviews to explore possible interactions among health coaching, health behavior changes (including physical activity), meaning, and hope. The curriculum-based health coaching intervention involved weekly, individual coaching for up to 12 weeks. We used thematic analysis to analyze interview data. Results: We identified three main themes: tapping into sources of meaning, increasing hopefulness, and hopelessness combined with lack of meaningful engagement. Conclusions/Implications: In the context of health coaching for people with disabilities, identifying sources of personal meaning appears to be necessary for the initial motivation for goal-directed action regarding physical activity. Subsequent generation and maintenance of hope appear to be vital for maintaining physical activity in this population.