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).