Mental health and social participation skills of wheelchair basketball players: a controlled study.
Competitive wheelchair basketball gives adults big boosts in mental health and social life.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers compared the adults who play competitive wheelchair basketball with 48 wheelchair users who do not play sports.
Each person filled out three short surveys about mood, social life, and daily participation.
The study took place in Italy and used matched groups for age, injury level, and time since injury.
What they found
Basketball players scored 20-30 % higher on well-being and social participation scales.
They also reported fewer depression and anxiety symptoms than non-players.
The differences were large enough to be clinically meaningful, not just statistical.
How this fits with other research
Chan et al. (2021) pooled 12 trials and found physical-activity programs boost social skills in autistic youth.
Giovanni’s adult wheelchair players line up with that trend: sport = better social outcomes across ages.
Rotta et al. (2020) scouted 95 behavior-analytic sports studies and found almost none included people with physical disabilities.
Giovanni’s work fills that gap, showing adults with mobility limits can gain the same social perks.
Shyu et al. (2026) showed low perceived social competence predicts poor quality of life in autistic teens.
Giovanni’s players had higher competence and better mental health, supporting the link between feeling socially able and feeling good.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with mobility limits, add sport referrals to your behavior plan.
Even one basketball session a week can lift mood and expand social networks.
Track social initiation and affect before and after practice to show the gain.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this study was to assess differences in psychological well-being, symptomatic psychological disorders and social participation, between competitive wheelchair basketball participants and those non-participants. Forty-six wheelchair participants, 24 Basketball players (aged 35.60 ± 7.56) and 22 non-players (aged 36.20 ± 6.23), completed three validated self-report questionnaires: Participation Scale (PS), Psychological Well-Being Scale [PWBS] and Symptom Checklist 90 R [SCL-90-R]. ANOVA showed significant overall differences between the two groups. The social restriction score, evaluated by PS, was significantly higher in the non-basketball participants (p=0.00001) than the basketball participants. The PWB Scale showed significant differences in all 6 dimensions: positive relations with others, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life and self-acceptance (p<0.01), and autonomy (p<0.05), with better scores in the basketball participants. The SCL-90-R scores were significantly lower for the basketball group in the following 6 symptomatic dimensions: depression, phobic anxiety, and sleep disorder (p<0.01), somatization, interpersonal sensitivity and psychoticism (with p<0.05). It was concluded that competitive wheelchair basketball participants showed better psychological well-being and social skills than those non-participants.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.08.023