The Meaning of physical activity in everyday life
What do people with physical disabilities tell
about participation, movement and community in everyday life? May those
narratives inspire us to continuously work
for an active life for all?
Participation in everyday life
• People with disabilities participate to a lesser
extend in society than other people
• Social network limited
• Feeling devaluated as human beings
• Internalise negative attitudes from society
• Barriers in society hinder participation in social communities
• Unimployed more often than not‐disabled
• Few are members of leisure time activity clubs
How do we understand participation?
• participation reflects the basic social character of human existence (Critical Psychology, Dreier, 2008)
• persons live their lives participating in a number of social contexts with various purposes, scopes and co‐participants
• Human subjectivity is based on the potential opportunity to realise the options of action at hand. People meet these options as part of the social contexts in which they participate Restricted participation
• But what is at stake when the individual is restricted in his moving between locations and opportunities for participation and his action is curtailed as it is often the case for people with physical disabilities? • How does he then get the experience of independence and self‐efficacy? And how does he affect his own life situation and his conditions in society?
Physical activity and participation
• If participation in physical activity is possible for people with physical disabilities, may then the experience of participation and ability that the person achieves in this context affect the person’s ability to participate and act in other kinds of social practice as well?
• Does it ‘work across places’? What is ’physical activity’?
In this respect: • athletic activity in various forms, including health‐related exercise performed for medical or fitness purposes, recreational physical activity and high level competition
What does research tell us? – a review
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Learning social rules
Management of disability
Perception of identity
Community experience
Empowerment
Maintenance and independence
Further research needed
• No studies are found that directly investigate the experienced impact of participation in physical activity to the everyday life of people with physical disabilities. • Interviews are not sufficient to elucidate the question
• We must also look into the practices of everyday life (observations)
Current research‐project
• Qualitative, pheneomenological study
• 7 Persons with physical disabilities, age 25‐53
• All of them regularly participants in physical
activities: Golf, sailing, swimming, horse‐back
riding, wheel‐chair rugby, handbiking, wheel‐
chair hockey, scouting
• Various motives for and levels of participation
Field work ‐ observations
• Observations of selected situations of the
persons’ everyday life – included participation in physical activities.
• Scenic descriptions ‐ short, condensated, poetically inspired description. Originated
from a phenomenological and hermeneutic
inspiration.
Field work – narrative interviews
• Narrative interviews: ’Please, tell me about
your life with physical activities’. • A few additional questions at the end of the
narrative.
• Transscription to a coherent narrative text in the person’s own style of speaking
Week‐schedule and photos
• Schema of a typical week for the
person
• Photos of everyday occurences
Analysis
• The different data sources offer various perspectives
on the same issue: The meaning of physical activity
in everyday life
• Different tools are used to analyse the different data. • Knowledge from all data sources are collected and presented in a narrative mode.
• Theorectic reflections
• I shall not go further into that now, but reveal some
preliminary findings
Selected preliminary findings
• Some of the themes that emerge
from the first steps of analysis
• Examples of, how the different
sources of data reflect the same theme
Sports a cultural context where you get social contacts for life
Narrative
• It was in the hockey club I met K., my best
friend, who’s now a member of my poker club. We meet very often. And another real close friend is also from the hockey team. And A. who’ll come to the training tonight. She
was also one of my first team mates… It’s
through sports I’ve got my closest friends, I suppose…
Sports a cultural context where you get social contacts for life
Scenic description
L. is wheel‐chairing down the ramp into the sports hall. He says
’hi’ to a couple of team‐mates and they start chatting. The tone
is friendly and a little teasing. They know each other well……
The training session is over and the players are chatting in small
groups. L. is lifted back in his wheel‐chair and returns up the
ramp into the Café to eat his meal together with his team‐mates.
This is the most important part. The people I am together with
here are my network, L. states.
31 year old male, Muscle Dystrophia
Encouragement to participate in other activities (work of board, job, volunteering, NGO, policy of disability)
Narrative
I’m keeping occupied almost all the time. I’m a board member in the CP‐association and in the local department of the Danish disability
organisation. I was earlier in the pupils association at Egmont Folk High school. And now I have my job at the garbage incinerator. I damned want things to happen! Encouragement to participate in other activities (work of board, job, volunteering, NGO, policy of disability)
Week schedule
Work x 3
Activity centre
Physiotherapy x 2
Scout meeting
Meeting in the bank
2 board meetings
Swimming
Sailing
National meeting in
the Danish
Disability Organisation
44 year old male, Cerebral Palsy
Physical activity as an organising element in everyday life – something everything else must adjust to
Narrative
Handbiking takes a lot of space in my everyday life. I bike almost every day, a couple of hours each
time. The 24 hours of the day are quickly gone
when you spend so much time on it. I like it. I’m
a competitive person. And the dream of
achieving something in WM or PL – that would be
great. I have my part time work, and that is what
I’m doing. Working and biking.
Physical activity as an organising element in everyday life – something everything else must adjust to
Scenic description
M. places his wheel‐chair next to the hand‐bike
that stands in the living room in front of the
terrace door. Carefully he puts the chair in the
right position and lifts himself by the arms
laterally down in the seat of the bike…. The
preparations take time, but now he is ready.
With a stick that he himself has constructed he
opens the terrace door and drives the bike out. ’It’s
important for me that I can manage on my own, when I
am going out biking’ he says.
Physical activity as an organising element in everyday life – something everything else must adjust to
Week schedule
Job 5 hours a day
Handbiking x 5
Weight training x 1
Cooking
Physiotherapy
TV / computer
Eventually together with family / friends
33 years old male, paraplegic
Physical activity as a means to maintain physical function a indepence
Narrative
• Horseback‐riding is my hobby but it’s my training as well. It’s such a benefit for me to ride. It strengthens
my whole body and trains my balance, very much… It
Makes me able to do other things also, e.g. walking,
standing, climbing stairs and exist. I need to have a
minimum of muscles. It’s not a matter of course for me
to go and buy a liter of milk – I have to train to be able
to do it.
Physical activity as a means to maintain physical function a indepence
Scenic description
She pulls the horse into the riding hall, stops next
to at milk‐box and gets ready to get into the
saddle. The horse moves away, and she is almost loosing her balance. ’Stand still!’ she commands and pulls the horse back
to the box. She ascends the box, puts the left foot into the
stirrup and lifts the right leg slowly across the back
of the horse. It seems to take some concentration
to keep balance. ’Hold’ she says, sits down in the saddle
and rides off, totally in control of her body.
32 year old female, spinal cord injury
Being a role‐model through sports / communicate experience Narrative
I have given people inspiration by showing how
far I’ve got. That’s what some of the people I’ve
been training say. The rehab‐centre had me
training people playing golf every Tuesday. And
several of them say: ’That was exactly what I
needed’. And they are now going to make golf clubs
in their home towns. That’s a wonderful feed back
to get
Being a role‐model through sports / communicate experience
Scenic description
B. gets off the scooter, lights a cigarette and fixes it in a clips at the handlebars. He bends down, puts a tee in the ground and places the ball. I do this very many times a day, he says, and that’s good training. He picks a club from the bag and places himself in a steady position with the club in his right hand. His left arm hangs passively, slightly flexed in the elbow. He moves his weight slowly from on e leg to another a couple of times, pulls the club back, swings is forward with high speed and hits the ball exactly with a loud snap. B. follows the ball with his eyes. It was a good strike. I easily make 150 meters with one hand. That’s what some people envy me, he says humorously. 53 year old male, hemiplegia
Social appreciation and respect
Narrative
I tell people that I play quad rugby, and what it is. And if you show them film clips from You Tube as
well, they get very impressed. But, you know,
bottom line it has to do with showing, that you are
able. When you are able to do something you get a
higher social status, in general. And when I am both
an athlete and have a job, well, then my social
status kind of rise. But I guess that’s the same for all
people.
Social appreciation and respect
Scenic description
J. gets the ball and two opponents tackle him from each side bumping against his chair with a crash. He
fights to get free, passes the ball to a teammate…. J. is playing agressively. He is guarded closely by two
opponents. Tries to get free by turning and backng
the chair. Feinting. But he can’t get free. The
opponents get the ball and score while he is stuck. ’I’m too dangerous for them, so they choose to give a player who constantly keeps me out of the game by covering me’
44 years old male, quadriplegic
The chance to take a risk
Narrative
When you are born with a disabilty you often
get cocooned. So for me it was fun to get out
and do something fierce like quad rugby something with a risk in it. We all know the
types of disability sport, boccia and bowling and
so on, where nothing really happens. That was
not enough for me
The chance to take a risk
Scenic description
P drives close to an opponent and tackles him
with a loud bang. Together with a teammate she keeps him stuck. She needs all her force to hold on. The opponent teases her by tickling, trying to make her loose her grip of the
wheels. ’Stop that, Mike!’ she shouts angrily
and keeps holding. ’Stop, Mike!’ she shouts
again, even louder.
25 year old female, Cerebral palsy
Feeling bodily freedom
Narrative: • I learned sailing at a folk high school, when I was in my twenties. It was wonderful to be able to be in a sailing boat alone and be able to steer it myself. The instructor said: ’You’re son of a skipper, you have to learn sailing’. Then he pushed the boat and off I went! I had no other choice than to feel my way pulling the ropes. But after a while I actually figured out how to sail a mini 12er. There was a motor boat following me, looking after me a bit. I have been sailing since that time. Feeling bodily freedom
Scenic description: • Brian is alone in the boat. It’s wonderful, he says, smiling. He has a tailwind and the speed is fairly good. He is sailing in zigzag showing that he is in control of winds and sails. Being in the boat his has no need for personal assistance. I’m heading for the fiord, he states. I have a long way to go. Don’t go too far out the coach says. Why not? That’s why I’m here, Brian claims boldly and sets the sail against the wind.
44 year old male, Cerebral Palsy
What do we learn about participation in this study?
• Participation in physical activity means at least something to the informants regarding
participation in other contexts of everyday
life. It’s worth while to follow the track.
• Deeper analysis of data and reflexion on the
basis of theories is going on. Anne‐Merete Kissow
Danish Disability Sport Information Centre and
Department of Psychology and Educational Studies, Roskilde University
[email protected]