| This study sought to understand why sport influenced meaningful changes in perceptions of Quality of Life for one woman with a spinal cord injury. Research suggests that sport participation increases a person's physiological indices of health, making them less prone to a variety of illnesses and making them stronger and therefore better able to participate in a variety of life experiences (Manns & Chad, 2001). Previous research has also focused on the social impact of sport, and the ways that sport brings people together (Schmidt-Hanson, Nabavi, & Yuen, 2000).;Quality of Life research measures an individual's subjective perception of life satisfaction and empowerment as influenced by responses to environmental circumstances (Brown, Raphael & Renwick, 1997). This research explored, through narrative inquiry, an individual's reflection of all the chapters of her life, the major events of those chapters, and the impetus for that chapter to end and a new one to begin (Clandinin & Connelly, 1994). Through exploration this research sought to discover how this woman, whose life appeared outwardly to be full of successes both in education and employment, and blessed with many close relationships and supportive family bonds, found sport to be a significant turning point in her understanding of self, and her feelings of increased self-satisfaction and empowerment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
