Purpose: To study the reliability and validity of the perceived self-efficacy in wheeled mobility scale among elite athletes with a spinal cord injury (SCI).
Method: During the Beijing Paralympics, 79 participants with SCI completed the SCI Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES), the revised Self-Efficacy in Wheeled Mobility scale (SEWM) and the perceived wheeled mobility (WM) at present Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Sample included athletes from 18 countries and subcategorized by gender, lesion level/completeness and type of sports. Reliability and concurrent validity were determined.
Results: SEWM Cronbach's α was 0.905. High internal consistency was confirmed in Split-half correlation coefficient (r = 0.87). Validity was supported by significant correlations between SWEM and ESES total scores (r = 0.64, p < 0.05), and between SEWM and WM VAS scores (r = 0.60; p < 0.001). Subgroups analyses showed that athletes with tetraplegia showed significantly lower WM self-efficacy levels than those with paraplegia. There was a significant difference in perceived WM self-efficacy between athletes who participated in dynamic wheelchair sports and those who participated in non-wheelchair sports (p < 0.03).
Conclusions: The SEWM is a reliable and valid scale among Paralympic athletes with SCI. Findings confirmed a significantly higher perception of self-efficacy in WM among athletes who participated in dynamic wheelchair sports.
Implications for rehabilitation: • Increased self-efficacy in wheeled mobility (WM) may encourage wheelchair users with spinal cord injury (SCI) to approach, persist, and persevere at WM related tasks that were previously avoided. • The perceived self-efficacy in WM scale (SEWM), which is available on-line in five different languages, may find clinical applications for people with SCI in different countries. • The SEWM can be applied to the assessment of progress in WM levels during the acute rehabilitation phase, and also in structured WM workshops conducted after discharge from the hospital.