PhD Scientific Days 2025

Mental Health Sciences II.

Flow experience and motivation of wheelchair handball players

Name of the presenter

Bleszák Nóra

Institute/workplace of the presenter

SE-Pető András Kar

Authors

Nóra Bleszák¹

1: SE-Pető András Kar

Text of the abstract

Intro. According to previous research, "handball players have been shown to be the most intrinsically motivated athletes" (Paic et al, 2018, p. 173). For this reason and because of my love for the sport handball, I began my research.
Aims. The aim of my present small-sample sub-study was to compare the motivation and flow experience of wheelchair handball athletes, disaggregated by gender, and also to explore correlations between motivation and flow categories.
Method. I interviewed the team coach using a structured oral interview method. This was followed by a quantitative strategy, using validated scales adapted to the form of an online questionnaire: H-SMS (s. b.) and the FSZK (Magyoródi et al., 2015) supplemented with my own questions. 11 wheelchair athletes participated in the study.
Results. In my thesis research, I also compared the motivation of 17 additional para-athletes with different sensory: 10 hearing and 7 visual disabilities within one sport with the results obtained for Paic's typical athletes. Para athletes were found to be more motivated than their typical mates for several factors. Although para-athletes are also athletes, they do not receive nearly as much support as their typical sports peers, which may be due to their social acceptance.
In my sub-study, I wanted to know the dominance of extr. or intr. motivation in question Q1. Iobtained the highest mean score (M=5.48 SD=1.63) for the cognitive intr. factor of intr. motivation and the second highest score for the intr. effective factor. Q2: During a match, players experience all of the Flow experiences, but not all to the same degree. The most dominant value is obtained for the Involvement factor (M=3.98 SD=1.16). Q3: During the examination of the connections and correlations between the flow experience and the motivational categories, we found a significant, positive, strong correlation between the motivational Effective intr. and flow Efficiency... factor measures, among others. Q4: The gender difference is evident in the number of participants, in number of players, intr. and extr. motivation and flow experience. However, the difference is apparent not significant.
Concl. The results of the small sample survey are only indicative, yet they have a representative value and may justify further research, as the total population is also small.
Fund.: EKÖP Univ. Research Schol. Progr.