A motivation profile of wounded, injured, and ill military personnel with PTSD who participate in adapted sport

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the sport motivation profile of wounded, injured, and ill military personnel with and without PTSD, to determine the quality of life profile of military personnel with and without PTSD, to compare the motivation and quality of life profile of military personnel with and without PTSD, and investigate a relationship between motivation and quality of life. The military personnel who participated in this study represented the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Special Operations and participated in adapted sport competitions, clinics, and camps. The data were collected at multiple sites including Warrior Games, and Project INVEST clinics. Participants completed the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS), the World Health Organization Qualify of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF), and additional demographic information (i.e. age, military branch, injury, service). The SMS can be scored resulting in an overall number of motivation on a -18 to 18 scale. The SMS can also be scored to determine means and standard deviations for the seven levels of motivation (amotivation, external regulation, introjection, identified regulation, intrinsic motivation to know, to accomplish, and experience stimulation). The WHOQOL-BREF is scored on a 0-100 scale for the four domains of quality of life (physical, psychological, social, and environment). Descriptive statistics were utilized to describe the motivation and quality of life profile, a t-test was applied to investigate the difference in the motivation profile between those with and without PTSD, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed to investigate the difference in quality of life profile between those with and without PTSD, and Pearson correlation was utilized to investigate a relationship between motivation and quality of life. The findings of the study were that participants with PTSD were instrinsically motivated, those with PTSD had similar motivation profiles of those without PTSD, those with PTSD had similar quality of life profiles as those without PTSD, there was nt relationship between the physical, psychological, environment, and social domains of quality of life for military personnel with and without PTSD.