Agata Goraczko
University School of Physical Education, Poland
Title: Personal competences of outstanding athletes after spinal cord injury
Biography
Biography: Agata Goraczko
Abstract
Introduction: Spinal cord injury is a serious injury associated with irreversible loss of motor function, social isolation, psychological problems and deterioration of the material situation Former athletes, for whom sport also had a professional dimension, constitute a special group of people with disabilities. The concept of emotional intelligence, defined by personal and social competences, was introduced by Cherniss and Goleman (2001). Personal competence determines the degree to which a person copes with himself. Three components of personal competences were distinguished: self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation According to Kopp and Jekauc (2018) research, high emotional intelligence correlates with high sports performance. Thus, outstanding athletes have high personal competence. How the situation changes in outstanding athletes after spinal cord injury is an issue in this paper.
Materials: The study involved three professional athletes who suffered spinal cord injury leading to paraplegia or tetraplegia. Criteria for inclusion in the project: sports achievements of the European minimum rank, spinal cord injury while playing sports, people not covered by hospital or outpatient treatment, after the stage of standard medical and rehabilitation care, consent to participate in the study. Participation in the study of one participant consisted in giving an online interview program and completing online questionnaires. First participant was a three-time gold medalist of the BMX World Championships in BMX, who suffered spinal cord injury while X-Games World Cup Second participant- double junior world Ski Champion, slipped out of the shoe while ski flying what cause damage in spinal cord level C6 / C7. Third participant was a European champion in karate whose spinal cord injury was damaged by falling from height at a sports camp.
Methods: In the first part, a semi-structured interview was conducted. Subsequently, the following variables were assessed using six research scales: sense of meaning in life (Scale of Sense of Sense of Life), effectiveness of dealing with difficult situations and obstacles (Scale of generalized Self Efficiency), control of anger, emotions and anxiety (Scale of Emotion Control), personal values (including health, physical and mental fitness) will be determined using the personal values list demographic data was collected using a personal questionnaire.
Results: On the sense of life scale, where the maximum number of points is 100, first respondent obtained 77 points, second 76 and third 93 The results in the following scales are as follows: Generalized Self-Efficiency Scale- 77.5%, (7th sten), 82.25% (8st sten) and 85% (8th sten); Emotion Control Scale- 60.71%, 56.9% and 59.25% .
Conclusions: Despite the tragic accident, as a result of which participants suffered spinal cord injury causing tetraplegia or paraplegia, and his life completely changed, the results obtained in the study indicate a high level of sense of meaning in life However, personal competences clarify at various levels depending on the scale.