Purpose in Life of Elite Athletes after Spinal Cord Injury

Agata Goraczko, Grzegorz Zurek, Maciej Lachowicz and Alina Zurek
Additional contact information
Agata Goraczko: Clinic of Neurorehabilitation, 54-519 Wroclaw, Poland
Grzegorz Zurek: Department of Biostructure, University School of Physical Education, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland
Maciej Lachowicz: Department of Biostructure, University School of Physical Education, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland
Alina Zurek: Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, 50-137 Wroclaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: Background : Searching for the meaning of human existence is man’s fundamental orientation. People are free to find meaning in their lives, and while they are not always free to choose the conditions of life, they are free to choose their attitude toward the conditions in which they find themselves. When people experience an unchangeable situation, the most important thing is the attitude they take toward it. This study aimed to identify the sense of meaning in life among elite athletes after a spinal cord injury (SCI) and to analyze the different aspects contributing to this domain. Methods : The study involved five athletes with at least national-level achievements in sports prior to a SCI. The study consisted of an interview using a communicator and filling out two online questionnaires—a personal questionnaire and the Purpose in Life Scale. Results : Analyzing the quantitative results, four participants achieved results indicating a high sense of meaning in life, while one participant achieved a significantly lower result. Conclusions : What affects one’s purpose in life is not so much the objective physical limitation but how much physicality one perceives to have lost as a result of the injury. Elite athletes stay involved in the sporting environment, which prevents the loss of purpose and maintains a sense of meaning at a high level. Both telling the story of your own illness and listening to the stories of others help the process of self-healing.

Keywords: purpose in life; spinal cord injury; athletes; global meaning; qualitative–quantitative study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5563/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5563/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5563-:d:560359

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().