Gender peculiarities of Paralympic athletes’ self-realization

Abstract

The purpose is to compare the emotional states of maleand female Paralympic athletes as well as to determinethe gender psychological peculiarities of Paralympicathletes’ self-realization in sports. Methods. It has been used the author’s questionnaireand six methods of psychodiagnostics: GeneralSelf-Efficacy Scale (R. Schwarzer, M. Jerusalem),Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (adapted byT. D. Shevelenkova and T. P. Fesenko), Self-DeterminationScale (Ye. M. Osina), S. Maddi’s HardinessSurvey (adapted and translated by D. O. Leontiev,O. I. Rasskazova), Questionnaire of Self-Organizationof Activities by O. Yu. Mandrykova, Purpose inLife Test by J. Crumbaugh& L. Maholick (adaptedand translated by D. O. Leontiev). Results. It hasbeen established that a set of factors caused bythe disability fact has a more adverse effect on maleParalympic athletes than female ones; this needs in depth analysis and interpretation, taking intoaccount that differences in performance indicatorsof healthy men and women are less noticeable. Asfor general features of self-realization of Paralympicathletes in sports, it is marked that Paralympic athletesare characterized by the predominant satisfactionwith their sports career, a quite prompt settingof new sports goal and clear vision of the athleticfuture. It is also worth marking that most of themdon’t consider the achieved sports results as highas possible, because they realize their potentialfor further athletic development. It refers both tomen and women. Conclusions. The findings can beuseful for enhancing the performance and attitudeof coaches of Paralympic representative teams tomen and women during the training and competitiveprocess of Paralympic athletes and contributingto their self-realization. Prospects for furtherresearches involve analyzing and understandingwhy a set of factors caused by the disability facthas a more adverse effect on male athletes thanfemale ones.