Protocol for the study of self-perceived psychological and emotional well-being of young Paralympic athletes

BACKGROUND We present the detailed protocol set up to investigate how agonistic sport affects the self-perceived psychological and emotional well-being of disabled young people. METHODS The study will be carried out on a number of subjects as large as 800-1200, using well-established indices that give a quantitative measure of such well-being, namely SF-12 and PGWBI. The related questionnaires will be administered to the participants to a forthcoming international event, the European Para-Youth Games, 9-15 October 2017, Liguria, Italy, as well as to a reference population of a similar number of subjects, made up of young disabled people that do not practice agonistic sport. DISCUSSION We expect that the outcomes of the study may strongly impact not only the socio-sanitary field but also society in general, as disabled people can be considered an extreme situation in the issue of balancing individual needs and environment to pursue psychological well-being. TRIAL REGISTRATION ISRCTN14389453 (29 June 2017).