Stories that move? Peer athlete mentors' responses to mentee disability and sport narratives

Background How people respond to the stories people tell matters. Past research demonstrates that there are varied responses to the narratives individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) use. Yet, no research has explored how peer athlete mentors with SCI respond to their mentees' stories about sport participation that are framed in different disability narratives. Purpose To explore how peer athlete mentors respond to four mentees' vignettes representing various attitudes towards adapted sport. Methods Thirteen peer athlete mentors discussed these vignettes in hour-long interviews; their responses were analysed using a dual narrative analysis. Results Peer athlete mentors tailored their responses to each individual vignette. Specifically, responses to the most open vignettes were tailored to the mentees' disability narratives and provided a variety of resources and sport information. This type of response to mentees' stories can support and validate these mentees' experiences and increase the likelihood that mentees will try sport. In contrast, peer athlete mentors' responses to the heavily resistant vignettes contained limited information about sport. These responses also challenged the mentees' disability narratives. These types of responses may be counter-productive as they invalidate the mentees' experiences with sport and SCI and may further deter sport participation. Conclusion While peer athlete mentors tailored the information they would provide to mentees who use different disability narratives, they expressed difficulties responding to the heavily resistant narrative. Future peer athlete mentor training should address this difficulty by providing practice around how to communicate with individuals expressing resistant narratives.