Development and Validation of a Tool for Assessing Barriers to Participation in Team Sports for Women with Physical-Mobility Disabilities

Creating proper contexts to maximize sport participation of women with physical-mobility disabilities requires identifying barriers to their participation. It is essential to develop a valid and reliable tool to identify existing barriers.

The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a questionnaire for assessing barriers to participation in team sports for women with physical-mobility disabilities.

The data were collected through theoretical literature, observation and semi-structured interviews with experts and professors of disability sports and women with physical-mobility disabilities selected through purposeful and snowball sampling methods. The main barriers were identified and the questionnaire was then prepared. To carry out statistical analysis on reliability and validity of the tool using factor analysis, the above questionnaire was distributed among 300 statistical samples selected by proportional stratified sampling across the country.

Results of factor analysis showed that it was logical to maintain 10 factors that explained 65.5% of the total variance. All items had a positive contribution to overall reliability.

The final questionnaire (10 factors and 48 questions) was developed that could be a reliable tool for future researches, the results of which can be used by disability sport administrators to adopt policies to ensure active sport participation of women with physical mobility disabilities.