The Research Comprised of a Postal Self-Completion Survey with Young

DISABILITY SURVEY 2000: SURVEY OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY AND SPORT Contents Page Chapter 1 Preface 3 1.1 Research Programme 3 1.2 Background and Objectives 3 1.3 Acknowledgements 14 1.4 Analysis 15 1.5 Weighting 18 1.6 Presentation and interpretation of the data 19 1.7 Finding your way around the report 19 Chapter 2 Key Findings 21 Chapter 3 Implications 32 Chapter 4 Overview 37 4.1 How many young people are taking part in sport? 38 4.2 The level of participation in sport 'at least once' in the last year 41 4.3 Sports participated in 'at least once' 42 4.4 The level of participation in sport 'frequently' in the last year 45 4.5 Sports participated part in 'frequently' 47 Chapter 5 Sport in school lessons 51 5.1 The level of participation in sport 'at least once' in lessons 52 5.2 Sports participated in 'at least once' in lessons 54 5.3 The level of participation in sport 'frequently' in lessons 59 5.4 Sports participated in 'frequently' in lessons 61 5.5 Types of sports taken part in during school time 68 5.6 Time spent on PE in a week in school (hours) 79 5.7 Time spent on PE in a week in school (days) 84 Chapter 6 Sport out of lessons 91 6.1 The level of participation in sports 'at least once' out of school lessons 92 6.2 Sports participated in 'at least once' out of school lessons 93 6.3 The level of participation in sport 'frequently' out of lessons 98 6.4 Sports done frequently out of lessons 100 6.5 Types of sports done out of lesson time 107 6.6 When sport is done out of lessons 116 6.7 Time spent on sport out of lessons 118 6.8 Time spent on sport during the summer holidays 120 1 Chapter 7 Where young people participate in sport out of lessons 124 7.1 Participation in different contexts 125 7.2 Extra-curricular sport 126 7.3 Trips arranged by the school 130 7.4 Involvement with clubs specifically set-up for sports 132 7.5 Sporting activity in other clubs where young people participate in sport 134 7.6 Out of school facilities: access and use 138 Chapter 8 A comparison of sports done in & out of lessons 140 8.1 Comparing the number of sports done in a year in and out-of-lessons 141 8.2 Comparing individual sports in and out of lessons 144 8.3 Comparing types of sports in and out of lessons 150 Chapter 9 Placing sport in context with other leisure activities 160 11.1 What activities are young people doing in their spare time? 160 11.2 Watching sporting events 163 Chapter 10 Motivating involvement in sport 165 10.1 Which sports do young people enjoy in school lessons? 166 10.2 Which sports don't young people enjoy in school lessons? 167 10.3 What subjects do young people enjoy? 172 10.4 Is it important to be fit? 176 10.5 Are young people competitive? 177 10.6 Is sport a social activity? 179 10.7 What is off-putting about sport? - barriers 182 10.8 Families and role models as motivator to participation in sport 184 Chapter 11 Barriers to Participation 194 11.1 Motivation and desire to undertake sport 195 11.2 Barriers to sport - overall and by age and sex 198 11.3 Barriers to participation in sport and disability type 205 Appendix 1 Sample design 211 Appendix 2 Methodology 213 Appendix 3 Questionnaire design 214 Appendix 4 Response rate 215 Appendix 5 Sample Profile - Children 218 Appendix 6 Using the Family Fund Trust as a sampling frame 223 Appendix 7 Using the Health Qualities Index system of Questions 225 Appendix 8 Data Processing 231 Appendix 9 Definitions 232 Appendix 10 Sports 233 Appendix 11 Questionnaire 234 References 235 2 Chapter 1 Preface This report presents the findings of the survey undertaken with young people who have a disability or severe illness. It is concerned with their experience of, attitudes to and participation in sport. It also investigated the barriers that young disabled people experience to participation in sport. Its ultimate aim is to help Sport England and others to better target their investment in sport with the objective of overcoming inequalities in provision and opportunity. 1.1 Research Programme The research comprised of a postal self-completion questionnaire for young disabled people aged 6-16. The survey was addressed to the disabled young person but it was expected that many would need some assistance with completion. 1.2 Background and Objectives Sport England (the brand name of the English Sports Council) is an independent body responsible for the development of sport in England, and committed to promoting the participation and greater involvement in sport and recreation by young people, including young disabled people. Sport England has a specific policy with regard to the development of sport among disabled people which aims to work towards the elimination of disadvantage and discrimination on the basis of disability in order to achieve better quality sport for disabled people. However, it has become widely acknowledged that there is a dearth of information that would allow Sport England to monitor progress in this area. Below is a brief review of the information that available. Two distinct approaches to disability sport research exist, which are different in the way that they view disability itself. The first follows the medical model of disability and second, the social model. Both types of research consequently adopt different ways of undertaking disability research which will have important implications for the participation of disabled people in sport and the positioning of disabled sport in society: how we view disability itself will inevitably influence the policies developed in relation to ‘disabled sport’ generally, and specifically the solutions developed to overcome any barriers that exist for disabled people in relation to participation in sport. 3 The two models of disability The medical model The medical model views disability and illness as synonymous. focuses on the distinguishing characteristic of the group of individuals (the impairment), makes the impairment more important than the individual and compares them to ‘the ‘norm’. It therefore places great emphasis on the negative aspects of the impairment and what the individual cannot do rather what they than can do. The World Health Organisation’s (1980) definition of disability is, in this sense, extremely problematic. In this definition, disability is “any restriction or lack, resulting from an impairment, of ability to perform an activity within the range considered normal for a human being.”(Kolkka et al, 1997). The impairment is seen as a problem and it is the limitation in physical, mental or sensory functional capability that is seen as preventing or compromising participation in able- bodied sport (Sherill, 1999). As a result, proponents of the medical model seek to ‘norm the nonstandard’ by intervening to ‘improve’ bodies or abilities, making the ‘abnormal’ more ‘normal’. Research that takes the view of the medical model is often quantitative and also fails to question why. It is therefore divorced from the direct experiences of people with disabilities. By taking this limited view, research will fail to understand the barriers to sport participation experienced by disabled people and will also limit the value that sport has for disabled people. The social model The social model of disability recognises that disability is a social construction and therefore the problem lies with society and structural factors, which fail to take account or adapt to people with physical or learning impairments. Whilst there is a physical impairment that often includes discomfort and pain, concepts such as normal and abnormal, disability and ability exist only in a social and cultural context. Therefore the social construction of normalcy is what creates the disabled person’s problem. Indeed, the social model argues that the abnormal is only created in societies that generate standards of normality. Shogan (1998) argues that statistics, as a normalisation discourse that constructs the average man and portrays this as the way things ought to be, has itself been instrumental in constructing disability as a problem. “Far from a neutral, objective enterprise, the discourse of statistics has produced social meaning about the normal and the abnormal, ability and disability” and has subsequently created categories such as intelligent, deviant, and the valued and disvalued (Shogan 1998, p 271). He argues that all those human characteristics that vary from the norm have been theorised as abnormal. Statistics have established the norm as the typical and the good and therefore comparisons are constantly made with that norm. 4 Oliver (1990) points out that “as long as the environment consists of social roles that are considered to be normal, the inability of the individual to live up to the requirements of these roles puts him or her in a disadvantaged position and thus creates a handicap.” Factors such as attitudes, perceptions, social expectations, attitudes towards physical appearance, architecture and the physical environment all affect at which point that variation from the norm actually becomes a disability. As McDermott and Varenne (1995) indicated, cultures “actively organise ways for persons to be disabled” (p337). Social contexts are organised to enable some but not others (Shogan, 1998). The Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (1976) therefore defined disability as “ the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a contemporary social organisation which takes no or little account of people who have physical impairments and thus excluded them from the mainstream of social activities.” (Kolkka et al 1997).

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