Study population/recruitment

Participating adolescents with physical disabilities or chronic diseases will be recruited via the education centre for pupils with special needs and the SPC in Halle (Saale), Germany. For the recruitment of non-disabled adolescents, four schools (two in urban regions and two in rural regions) will be approached in order to recruit interview partners. As part of the recruitment of adolescents, legal guardians should be engaged as well as participate in focus groups.

The individual interviews will include adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years, both with and without disabilities or chronic diseases in the area of physical and motor development. The interviews will only be conducted when a written consent is available. According to the theoretical sampling,³⁷ the cases will not be determined at the beginning of the research, but will be successively recruited in the alternation of collection and development of theoretical categories, with a following further collection. Depending on the level of the category, it will be decided whether a participant from the urban or rural region is interviewed or whether an adolescent with or without disabilities or chronic diseases is interviewed. The recruitment will continue until a theoretical saturation is reached. Experience from our own and other studies indicate leading approximately 40 interviews, 20 with adolescents with disabilities or chronic diseases and 20 with adolescents without disabilities or chronic diseases.³⁸ Adolescents with acute illnesses, with complex cognitive impairments or without written consent are excluded. The ability to communicate by voice must be given.

The national experts for participation are recruited via the ‘European Association on Early Childhood Intervention’. Hereby, extensive contacts can be made with different SPCs and various rehabilitation facilities. The constellation of the focus groups allows us to generate heterogeneous groups, who work out different experiences and impressions in their discussions. A group size of six to eight participants has been proven to be a good group size in focus group discussions with experts.³⁹ The relevant target group will be better reached by a specific approach rather than by random selection. The selection strives for a group dynamic which is considered to be beneficial for the research objective of clarifying the basic understanding of the term (participation), the understanding of the theoretical construct of social participation of adolescents as well as the addition of the perspective of the adolescents. The participants of the first phase will be informed about the second phase of the study. At the same time, the willingness to participate in the second phase of the study (giving feedback to an assessment tool) will be enquired.