It takes a ‘spark’. Exploring parent perception of long-term sports participation after a practitioner-led, peer-group sports intervention for ambulant, school-aged children with cerebral palsy

JSAMS plus Pub Date : 2025-01-20 DOI:10.1016/j.jsampl.2025.100087

Georgina Clutterbuck , Mikaila Gent , Daniel Thomson

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Abstract

Background

Participation in sport improves health and wellbeing, however children with disabilities participate in less physical activity than their peers. Interventions provided by health professionals in real-world sports contexts (i.e., in groups at sports facilities) have been shown to be effective in the short-term, however, long-term effects have not been investigated.

Aims

To explore parents’ perceptions of long-term sports participation after a practitioner-led, peer-group sports intervention (Sports Stars) for ambulant, school-aged children with cerebral palsy.

Methods

Parents of children who attended Sports Stars two to three years earlier participated in interviews exploring intervention experience and ongoing sports participation. Children's pre-intervention sports activity and participation goals were reassessed with the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM).

Results

Fourteen parents participated. All reported that Sports Stars was an effective intervention, with children's increased confidence reported as the most beneficial outcome. Since attending Sports Stars, children participated in a variety of sports, the most common being swimming and soccer. Most parents reported environmental factors as a barrier to ongoing sports participation.

Statistically significant improvements in children's relevant sports-focussed activity and participation goals were demonstrated compared to pre-Sports Stars (COPM activity performance mean improvement (MI) = 3.94, p = 0.004, participation performance MI = 4.88, p < 0.001). When compared to post-Sports Stars, children maintained, or further improved, ratings of performance and satisfaction at 2–3 years follow-up.

Conclusions

Parents of ambulant children who participated in a short term, practitioner-led, peer-group sports intervention perceived that Sports Stars was the catalyst for subsequent changes to their children's long-term sports participation.