Mental Health Structure And Characteristics Of Chinese Athletes With Disabilities

As one of the important parts of 2008 Olympic Games,issues of China Sports and Disabilities,the sport of athletes with disabilities received more and more attention from society and academic researchers.Further enhancement the level of competition in the disability movement and the participation in the further expansion will depend on progress in the development of sports science,technology and education systems which provide intellectual support for the knowledge-based services.Athletes with disabilities are a special group,they not only own unique psychological characteristics,but also need to live in a tense environment of training and competition and face enormous pressure.So researchers need to pay more attention to their mental health.The suggestion of "positive mental health" and "there is a need for theory-based research to ensure that athletes with disability receive appropriate sport psychology service to enhance their performance" tell us that we need to start from the foundation research and re-examine the appropriate mental health connotations of athletes with disabilities according to their situations.The research of athletes with disabilities has both the theoretical as well as practical significance.The present study included one interview and two investigations.The interview research involved 13 athletes with disabilities,and provided to us evidence data and information for confirming the factors for mental health and developing instrument.The two investigations involved 109 and 206 athletes with disabilities.The Scale of Mental Health of Athletes with Disabilities designed though item the analysis and the structure equation model.On another hand,the study was examined the mental health of athletes with disabilities with different ages,gender and sport-specifics.Results indicated that:1 There are five factors in the mental health of athletes with disabilities,including social support,sport attitude,confidence,life satisfaction and volition. 2 The Scale of Mental Health of Athletes with Disabilities had an acceptable reliabilityand validity through the analysis of items and the structure equation model.3 There were significant interactions among age,gender and sport-specifics in the social support,sport attitude and volition.4 There was significant difference in confidence.It showed that confidence grew with age without the influence of training.