Motivation of Atheletes with Disabilities for Sports Participation

The study was conducted to determine motivations of the licensed athletes within Turkish Physically Disabled/Blind/Deaf Sports Federations for sports participation. A total of 303 disabled athletes participated in the study that was designed in the quantitative model. In the study, it was determined that the group with the highest motivation to participate in sports in terms of the total scores in all sub-scales were physically disabled athletes. It was followed by blind and deaf athletes. It was observed that extrinsic motivation of the national athletes was significantly higher than of the non-national ones; that motivation decreased significantly as age increased; and that deaf women athletes had significantly higher motivation than their male counterparts in both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation scores. In addition, it was also determined that motives physically disabled athletes for sports doing was related with physical development; that among intrinsic motivation factors of blind athletes, "doing sports makes someone feel free" was emphasized more, and that "amotivation" came the forefront for physically disabled athletes when compared to others. In short, it was found that national athletes and physically disabled athletes were more likely a have higher motivation for sports participation than their non-national and deaf-blind counterparts, respectively. In addition, there was no significant relationship between motivation for sports participation and age, but it differed significantly by experience.