TITLE:
A Survey on People’s Impressions of the Paralympic Games
AUTHORS:
Motomu Haishima, Norihito Kajita, Koichiro Aoki, Chieko Kato
KEYWORDS:
Paralympics, Impression, Questionnaire, Factor Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.4,
April
23,
2020
ABSTRACT: In Japan, people’s interest in the Paralympics is at a lower level
compared with awareness of the Paralympics. This study conducted a
questionnaire survey focusing on people’s impressions of the Paralympics and
Para-Athletes as background factors of the current situation. A preliminary
survey was conducted to make questions about these impressions for a main
survey. Participants in the preliminary survey described their impressions of
the Paralympics and Para-Athletes and 23 questions for the main survey were
made based on these descriptions. Participants in the main survey were asked to
answer two questions about their experiences of watching Para-Sports and their
interest in the Paralympics, along with 23 questions about their impressions of
the Paralympics and Para-Athletes. Factor analysis of the answers to the 23
questions was carried out and three factors
were extracted: “Admired Hero”, “Self-Disciplined People”, and “Athletes
Encouraging People”. In addition, the participants were classified into two
groups depending on their experiences of watching Para-Sports and interest in
the Paralympics, and each factor score was compared among groups. The results
showed there were significant differences in the scores of the second factor,
“Self-Disciplined People” between the groups. The second factor was composed of
the impressions related to athletes’ traits required in their
competition life and represented their attitude in detail. This result
suggested that people who have watched Para-Sports or who have interest in the
Paralympics tend to focus on Para-Athletes’ attitudes as athletes, and to be
impressed with them.