Paralympic boccia in Brazil: use of coping strategies by athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The measure of physical isolation adopted during a pandemic affected the daily routine of the whole world, including in the sports environment. Therefore, the study sought to compare the coping strategies used by Paralympic boccia athletes during the pandemic period. The sample consisted of 43 athletes (30 men and 13 women) aged 29.95-11,76 years. To identify and measure coping strategies, the ACSI-28 (athletic coping skills inventory) questionnaire was used in its version adapted to Portuguese and added to an electronic form. In data analysis, normality was verified by the Shapiro-Wilk test. After that, all inferential comparison analyzes were measured via nonparametric statistical tests with paired post-hoc DSCF tests. Thus, the results showed that there were significant differences between comparisons in terms of experience, "+10 years", "5 to 10 years", and "1 to 3 years" on the subscales "goals and mental preparation" (6.00+or-1.75 vs 5+or-1.50 vs 5+or-1.50;p<0.05;ES 0.26) and "trainability" (9.00+or-3.25 vs 6.00+or-0.500 vs 8.00+or-3.00;p<0.05;ES 0.19). More and less experienced athletes in the boccia modality showed superiority in facing the pandemic period, as they obtained better indices in the "goals and mental preparation and trainability" dimensions of coping strategies compared to their peers with less experience.