Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the influence of personal and environmental factors that affect the participation likelihood of athletes in wheelchair basketball. Convenient sampling was used. The Participation Likelihood Assessment Tool for Wheelchair Basketball (PLAT-WB), developed by Khumalo B, Van Heerden J, and Skalko T. was used to collect data. Data was analysed through the method prescribed for scoring the questionnaire. The T-test (SPSS version 20) was used to find the significance difference of how the influential factors affect males and females. A total of 38 questionnaires, of which 18 from women and 20 from men, were correctly completed. The results showed that there is a 92.11% moderate likelihood to participate, 2.63% very low likelihood to participate in wheelchair basketball. Males have 5% low likelihood, 90% moderate likelihood and 5% high likelihood to participate in wheelchair basketball. Females showed a 5.6% low likelihood, 0% low likelihood, 94.4% of moderate likelihood and 0% of high likelihood to participate in wheelchair basketball. There is no significant difference (p = 0.215) between men and women participation likelihood as affected by environmental factors and no significant difference (p= 0.918) by personal factors. Generally, men (92.11%) and women (92.11%) with a moderate participation likelihood are quite likely to play WB. The study revealed that the personal and environmental factors have the same influence in the participation likelihood levels for both males and females. Thus, the barriers that hinder the possible WB to participate affect both males and females in a similar way.
Keywords: Perception; Participation; Restrictions; Environmental Factors; Personal Factors
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