Adolescent Girls’ Involvement in Disability Sport: Implications for Identity Development

Abstract

The social institution of sport reflects a society that presupposes the values, mores, norms, and standards of the majority and subsequently determines who can participate in sport and who can be identified as an athlete. Recognizing the growing importance of disability sport to people with disabilities, the purpose of this study was to use the construct of symbolic interactionism to examine the identity development of adolescent girls with physical disabilities who participate in organized wheelchair sports with a specific focus on athletic identity development. An understanding of how the girls’ interaction with various socializing agents through a wheelchair sport program to develop an athletic identity was developed through interviews. Results are presented utilizing Keliber’s framework for identity development through leisure participation, including sport.