The athletic work force: Sport as a key to employment for people with intellectual disabilities?

2.2.1 Recruitment & participants

The researchers presented their aim to the organisers, i.e., SOSIG, who supported the idea and agreed to help with the planned study. For ethical reasons, the authors and SOSIG agreed that all information from the authors should be delivered by SOSIG. Thus, athletes and their leaders remained anonymous for the authors.

A short digital survey, aimed for the in total 76 leaders who accompanied the 145 Swedish athletes participating in the SOSIG games, was constructed by the authors and put online in February 2020. The leaders (e.g., a parent, relative, or sport coach) were the athletes’ contact persons in relation to SOSIG, and information about the survey was delivered by SOSIG directly to the leaders. The leaders were, in most cases, responsible for one or two athletes, but leaders were also responsible for teams of athletes (up to 11 athletes). The survey included questions regarding the athletes’ sex (men/women), age (0–20/21–30/31–40/41–50/50+), employment situation (not in work/in work part-time/in work full-time), type of salary (wage subsidy/regular salary/do not know), type of employment (private/public).

2.2.2 Survey analysis

The survey was analysed using descriptive statistics.

2.3.1 Recruitment & participants

Participants were recruited through the SOSIG organisation and limited to athletes diagnosed with ID. For ethical reasons, a contact person at SOSIG informed participating leaders about our study, and that the authors wished to conduct interviews with athletes with ID who had a job. A “job” was defined as some sort of paid work (wage subsidy included, sheltered work/daily activity excluded). Those interested in participating were asked to contact the first author. In total, we were contacted by 14 leaders, which, for different reasons, resulted in interviews with seven athletes. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcripted verbatim.

2.3.2 Interview guide & interviewing

All interviews were performed as follows. Firstly, researchers met the interviewee and, if appropriate, his/her leader and/or assistant at the official meeting point for the SOSIG (which was the Mid Sweden University campus). Together, the pair or group went to a smaller separate room. Before the interview began, we reviewed the consent previously provided via email and solicited consent a second time, and after a description of the layout and content of the interview, the interview itself begun.

All interviews followed the same interview guide. Initially, short background questions were asked, followed by questions on sports, in which interviewees were asked as well about participating in the SOSIG, as well as participation in other sports. Then, questions were asked about work and participation in wage labour. Questions concerned current work as well as any previous work. Both topics of the interview guide included questions about social relations in sports and work. Lastly, respondents were asked about their thoughts on the potential relationship between sports and work, or, more precisely, the role of sports in finding and keeping a job.

In total, seven interviews of 17— 32 minutes were made. Four interviews were led by first author and three by the second author. Four respondents participated alone and three were accompanied by a leader.

The interviews were strictly delimited to questions on sports and labour force participation. That is, interviews were made with the participants in their roles as professionals. No personal questions were asked, nor questions about health in general or the interviewee’s specific ID. However, based on observations during the interviews, the participants can be described as of various ages with various types and degrees of intellectual disability.

2.3.3 Interview analysis

To arrive at an understanding of how the athletes with ID experienced combining sports with work, descriptive content analyses [28] focusing on what was said by the participants (manifest analysis) specifically on the predetermined themes on work and sports respectively, and the relation between work and sports, was carried through. With this directed approach to content analysis, the goal was to validate and deepen the knowledge from the statistical analysis. The content analyses were made in a two-step process: firstly, the characteristics of sports and work were analysed and described; secondly, the relationship between sports and work, and especially the respondents’ thoughts regarding sport as a potential facilitator for finding and keeping a job, was investigated, and described. Initially, the material was read by the two researchers who both marked meaning units within the material, that is statements relating to the same central meaning [28], in this case sports and work respectively. The meaning units where then condensed, coded and thereafter interpreted as described by Graneheim and Lundman [28]. From this, categories were created reflecting the predetermined focus of sports, work and the relation between sports and work.

3.2.1 Work and sports

The first step of the analysis gives background information on work and sports among the interviewees. Hence, the results on work and sports respectively describe the content of the material collected in the interviews.

Regarding work, the content analysis shows that respondents had various kinds of work, whereas all work are included within the same analytical category, namely manual work, as illuminated in Table 1 (below). The category consists of two types of work: blue-collar jobs and service jobs respectively. Blue-collar job reflects that some participants describe themselves as factory workers, attendants, fitters, or cleaners. Also, two respondents worked as assistants at a hospital and a restaurant, here in defined as service jobs. Several participants report having full-time work while others work part time. None was employed less than half time.

When it comes to sports, most respondents have experience practicing various sports. From this, individual sports and team sports occurred in the analysis. The following individual sports are mentioned in the data: orienteering, running, athletics, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, badminton, bowling, and riding. The team sports mentioned in the material were floor hockey, soccer, and handball as summarized in Table 1. In the current competition, however, all participated in just one sport. The respondents’ involvement in sports varied, but sports played a central role in the lives of all. On a weekly basis, time spent on physical training ranged between four and twelve hours. Further, involvement in competition varied among the individuals.

In the second step of the analysis, the relation between sports and work were analysed. The results presented are followed by a table summarizing the categories and sub-categories created from the content analysis (see Table 2, below).

The importance of the respondents’ involvement in sports, and their appreciation, were evident from the interviews. Regarding which aspects of sport engagement were most important, all pinpointed sport’s social aspects, i.e., they have friends in the sport community and the sporting community (especially fellow athletes) was like a second family. The importance of leaders in sports was also mentioned as important. The social aspects of attending in sports indirectly contributing to the relation between sports and work constitutes the first category in this part of the analysis: indirect relations between sport and work. This first category is defined by how the relation between work and sports is understood as indirectly connected where social relationships in sports is found facilitating the possibility of getting a job and the physical strength from engaging in sports is contributing to the possibilities fulfil the duties at work.

Firstly, the indirect relations between sport and work were found in relation to social aspects, the first sub-category:

Also, competition was mentioned in the interviews, and travel.

Beside its social aspects, interviewees highlighted, e.g., that sport is psychologically strengthening, what constitutes the second sub-category here.

In addition to sport’s more indirect positive aspects, in finding and keeping a job, more direct relations between sport and work were mentioned. This second category on the relation between sports and work is defined by how the relation between work and sports is understood as directly connected through formal public support and private contacts enabling job, and through personal advantages and resources strengthen the position in work but also some disadvantages on the difficulties combining sports and work. This category constitutes of several sub-categories reflecting the various perspectives on how sports was found as facilitating the possibilities finding and/or keeping a job: formal public support, private contacts, personal advantages, resources but also disadvantages combining sport and work (for an overview of the analysis, see Table 2).

In the interviews, participants were asked about their introduction to the labour market. In most cases, formal public support was highlighted as crucial for getting job, what constitutes the first sub-category here. In the material, internship during schooling (IP 5, IP7), a public-supported project for people with ID (IP4), and the Swedish Public Employment Service (IP2) were highlighted as crucial for getting a job, as in the following quote:

Private contacts, the second sub-category, were also pinpointed within the material, as some interviewees described getting their job through social contacts. In one case, the leader was described as the key person in seeking employment (IP6). In the present study, the relation between sports and work was at focus. Thus, private contacts in the sports were described as a crucial facilitator in finding a job in two of the seven interviews.

In the following quote, the interconnection between private social contacts and sports is highlighted. The interviewee recounted that “we knew people” and that “it was probably Dad who knew someone”, in both cases in the context of sports.

In the next example as well, the interrelation between sports and social relations is highlighted. Here, the respondent described how social contacts from a sports camp led to possible interest in a summer job at a factory. Experiences working extra led to a probationary employment (and, later on, a permanent position):

When asked about sport in relation to keeping a job, and any possible advantages and/or disadvantages of combining sport and employment, several specific examples were mentioned in the material.

Regarding personal advantages, the third sub-category describing the relation between sports and work, illuminating the relationship between sports and work, four of the interviewees pinpointed that the physical strength that they get from exercising provides benefits at work, as highlighted in this quote:

Actually, the importance of physical strength was in one case described as necessary to doing the job:

As described, the interviewees worked within in blue-collar jobs and service, that is, physically demanding work.

Further, combining sport and work seems a question of resources, which constitutes the fourth sub-category. To get paid is described as important for sport, but, at the same time, sport is described as most essential, before work. That is, the resources from a job create the conditions for sports and competition. As illustrated by the following quotation, work enables focusing on sports:

This respondent stated that it would be preferable to have sufficient resources to enable focusing on sports exclusively:

In the material, some disadvantages related to combining sport and job also emerged. These problems, which constitutes the last sub-category, were relating to combining these two activities. Such disadvantages were related to endurance, time, and resources.

One of the interviewees mentioned that it can be difficult to exercise in the evening, despite a longing to run, due to lack of energy. In this case, a lunch break was used for training to enable combining sport and work:

In the quotation above, not only is endurance mentioned, but also the difficulties creating time for both sport and work. Time was repeatedly a problem, not only difficulties having time to combine sport and work, but also the consequences of combining sport and work on other free time activities. When sport and work take all available time, little time is left for anything else, as emphasised by IP3. Similarly, in the quote below, the respondent stated that he is away until the late evening, making it difficult doing anything else during his spare time:

In summary, the analysis based on the interviews with Swedish Special Olympic athletes with ID show that participation in sports have number of positive effects in life in general, and, particularly regarding the relation between sport and work, when it comes to finding a and keeping a job. Some respondents got their job through formal contacts, while others refer to personal contacts, and, for some, sport contacts. Some interviewees find their physical strength, acquired through sports, to be important in performing their work, while others highlight the importance of resources derived from work. Also, some difficulties regarding combining sports and work were found. Such disadvantages relate to the possibilities combing exercise and working (endurance, time).