Children with autism in a sport and physical activity context: a collaborative autoethnography by two parents outlining their experiences

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Metadata sources used for this reference

OpenAlex Crossref OpenCitations
Learn more about the sources used

McMahon, J., Wiltshire, G. E., McGannon, K. R., & Rayner, C. (2019). Children with autism in a sport and physical activity context: a collaborative autoethnography by two parents outlining their experiences. Sport, Education and Society, 25(9), 1002-1014. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2019.1680535

Publication date: 16 Oct 2019 Added to AutiHub: 22 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Jenny McMahon
  2. Gilly-Elle Wiltshire *
  3. Kerry R. McGannon
  4. Christopher Rayner

Abstract

Sport and physical activity contexts are entrenched with ableist perspectives which view disability as abnormal or negative. Consequently, those who deviate from cultural norms may experience inequity, exclusion, stigmatisation, non-accidental violence and maltreatment. Despite the commitment to ensuring sport and physical activity is safe and inclusive through policies and programmes, more knowledge is needed about the welfare-related experiences of persons with a disability in sport and physical activity to better protect them. This research used collaborative autoethnography and Goffman’s theory of stigma to explore two mothers’ experiences in a sport and physical activity context, including what they saw, what they felt and what they perceived their children with a disability experienced. This research shows both mothers experienced stigma (e.g. enacted, courtesy, affiliate) due to their immersion and the actions of others in these contexts. Further, both mothers also perceived that their children with a disability experienced the same types of stigma in these contexts as well as the negative consequences related to this stigma (e.g. bullying, social isolation, exclusion, judgement, labelling, anxiety). These acts of stigmatisation positioned both them and their children as outsiders within the stories. This collaborative autoethnography highlights the lack of provisions for disabled children and their families in sport and physical activity contexts, and the persistence of ableist views.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
43
With a DOI
42
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
0 / 43 (0.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 43 (2.3%)
References with detected author names
42 / 43 (97.7%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
106
From DOI or external metadata
106
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
10 / 106 (9.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 96 / 106 (90.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
0 / 106 (0.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 0 / 10 (0.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 0 / 94 (0.0%).
  1. Marit Sørensen , Nina Kahrs (2006). Integration of Disability Sport in the Norwegian Sport Organizations: Lessons Learned . Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 23(2), 184-202. Human Kinetics.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1123/apaq.23.2.184 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W112844916
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  2. Sarah S Collard , Caroline Ellis-Hill (2019). ‘I’d rather you didn’t come’: The impact of stigma on exercising with epilepsy . Journal of Health Psychology, 24(10), 1345-1355. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1359105317729560 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2754788506
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  3. N. Salmon (2013). ‘We just stick together’: how disabled teens negotiate stigma to create lasting friendship . Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 57(4), 347-358. Wiley.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01541.x OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1494573670
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  4. González Moreno, Andrés Santiago (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . American Psychiatric Association.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4247665917
    OpenCitations
  5. Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson , John Hockey (2008). Autoethnography as ‘Valid’ Methodology? A Study of Disrupted Identity Narratives . The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review, 3(6), 209-218. Common Ground Research Networks.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.18848/1833-1882/cgp/v03i06/52631 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1575580909
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  6. Ruth Jeanes , Ramón Spaaij , Jonathan Magee , Karen Farquharson , Sean Gorman , Dean Lusher (2018). ‘Yes we are inclusive’: Examining provision for young people with disabilities in community sport clubs . Sport Management Review, 21(1), 38-50. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.smr.2017.04.001 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2608531887
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  7. Helen Owton , Andrew C. Sparkes (2017). Sexual abuse and the grooming process in sport: Learning from Bella's story . Sport, Education and Society, 22(6), 732-743. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2015.1063484 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1623363019
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  8. Kitrina Douglas (2014). Challenging interpretive privilege in elite and professional sport: one [athlete’s] story, revised, reshaped and reclaimed . Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 6(2), 220-243. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/2159676x.2013.858369 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2055488209
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  9. Emily Dane-Staples , Lauren J. Lieberman , Jennifer J. Ratcliff , Kathleen A. Rounds (2013). Bullying experiences of individuals with visual impairment: the mitigating role of sport participation. Journal of sport behavior, 36(4), 365-386.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1833197968
    OpenAlex
  10. Camilla J. Knight , Travis E. Dorsch , Keith V. Osai , Kyle L. Haderlie , Paul A. Sellars (2016). Influences on parental involvement in youth sport. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 5(2), 161-178. American Psychological Association (APA).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1037/spy0000053 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2342858916
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  11. Russell Lang , Lynn Kern Koegel , Kristen Ashbaugh , April Regester , Whitney Ence , Whitney Smith (2010). Physical exercise and individuals with autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review . Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4(4), 565-576. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2010.01.006 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1964110829
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  12. Amori Yee Mikami , Gua Khee Chong , Jena M. Saporito , Jennifer Jiwon Na (2015). Implications of Parental Affiliate Stigma in Families of Children with ADHD . Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 44(4), 595-603. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2014.888665 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2011292125
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  13. Nick Hodge , Katherine Runswick-Cole (2013). ‘They never pass me the ball’: exposing ableism through the leisure experiences of disabled children, young people and their families . Children's Geographies, 11(3), 311-325. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2013.812275 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1977342324
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  14. Andrew C. Sparkes (2018). Autoethnography Comes of Age . In The Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of Education (pp. 479-499). Wiley.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1002/9781118933732.ch21 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2790092585
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  15. Laura Mullins , Michèle Preyde (2013). The lived experience of students with an invisible disability at a Canadian university . Disability & Society, 28(2), 147-160. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2012.752127 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1978480558
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  16. Sara Green , Christine Davis , Elana Karshmer , Pete Marsh , Benjamin Straight (2005). Living Stigma: The Impact of Labeling, Stereotyping, Separation, Status Loss, and Discrimination in the Lives of Individuals with Disabilities and Their Families . Sociological Inquiry, 75(2), 197-215. Wiley.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-682x.2005.00119.x OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2171906679
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  17. Kitrina Douglas (2009). Storying my self: negotiating a relational identity in professional sport . Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 1(2), 176-190. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/19398440902909033 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1979654447
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  18. Bruce G. Link , Jo C. Phelan (2001). Conceptualizing Stigma . Annual Review of Sociology, 27(1), 363-385. Annual Reviews.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4213367093
    OpenCitations
  19. Carolyn Ellis (2007). Telling Secrets, Revealing Lives . Qualitative Inquiry, 13(1), 3-29. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1077800406294947 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1995051506
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  20. Britta Wigginton , Jenny Setchell (2016). Researching stigma as an outsider: considerations for qualitative outsider research . Qualitative Research in Psychology, 13(3), 246-263. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/14780887.2016.1183065 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2346019920
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  21. Kerry R. McGannon , Brett Smith (2015). Centralizing culture in cultural sport psychology research: The potential of narrative inquiry and discursive psychology . Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 17, 79-87. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2014.07.010 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2052978677
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  22. Hayley Fitzgerald , David Kirk (2009). Identity work: young disabled people, family and sport . Leisure Studies, 28(4), 469-488. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/02614360903078659 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2040899724
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  23. Ruth Jeanes , Ramón Spaaij , Jonathan Magee , Karen Farquharson , Sean Gorman , Dean Lusher (2019). Developing participation opportunities for young people with disabilities? Policy enactment and social inclusion in Australian junior sport . Sport in Society, 22(6), 986-1004. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2018.1515202 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2899310207
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  24. Diana C. Parry , Corey W. Johnson (2007). Contextualizing Leisure Research to Encompass Complexity in Lived Leisure Experience: The Need for Creative Analytic Practice . Leisure Sciences, 29(2), 119-130. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/01490400601160721 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2053900350
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  25. Sarah Gregor , Nicole Bruni , Petar Grkinic , Lindsey Schwartz , Aimee McDonald , Patricia Thille et al. (2018). Parents’ perspectives of physical activity participation among Canadian adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder . Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 48, 53-62. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2018.01.007 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2793308886
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  26. David E. Gray (2002). ‘Everybody just freezes. Everybody is just embarrassed’: felt and enacted stigma among parents of children with high functioning autism . Sociology of Health & Illness, 24(6), 734-749. Wiley.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.00316 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2062748379
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  27. PATRICK W. CORRIGAN , FREDERICK E. MILLER (2004). Shame, blame, and contamination: A review of the impact of mental illness stigma on family members . Journal of Mental Health, 13(6), 537-548. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/09638230400017004 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2152121718
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  28. Fiona A. Kumari Campbell (2008). Exploring internalized ableism using critical race theory . Disability & Society, 23(2), 151-162. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/09687590701841190 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2070508315
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  29. ERIC ANDERSON (2002). Openly Gay Athletes . Gender & Society, 16(6), 860-877. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/089124302237892 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2565797484
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  30. Jenny McMahon , Dawn Penney (2011). Empowering swimmers and their bodies in and through research . Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 3(2), 130-151. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/2159676x.2011.572176 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2078913460
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  31. Ashleigh Hillier , Deirdra Murphy , Cynthia Ferrara (2011). A Pilot Study: Short‐term Reduction in Salivary Cortisol Following Low Level Physical Exercise and Relaxation among Adolescents and Young Adults on the Autism Spectrum . Stress and Health, 27(5), 395-402. Wiley.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1002/smi.1391 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2170109798
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  32. Michelle Sowa , Ruud Meulenbroek (2012). Effects of physical exercise on Autism Spectrum Disorders: A meta-analysis . Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6(1), 46-57. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2011.09.001 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2103041243
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  33. Kari Fasting , Celia Brackenridge (2009). Coaches, sexual harassment and education . Sport, Education and Society, 14(1), 21-35. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/13573320802614950 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2107553819
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  34. Timothy R. Broady , Gerard Stoyles , Corinne Morse (2017). Understanding carers’ lived experience of stigma: the voice of families with a child on the autism spectrum . Health & Social Care in the Community, 25(1), 224-233. Hindawi Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/hsc.12297 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2111976053
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  35. Monica Dowling , Linda Dolan (2001). Families with Children with Disabilities - Inequalities and the Social Model . Disability & Society, 16(1), 21-35. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/713662027 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2168442880
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  36. Stéphanie Wahab (2003). Creating Knowledge Collaboratively with Female Sex Workers: Insights from a Qualitative, Feminist, and Participatory Study . Qualitative Inquiry, 9(4), 625-642. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1077800403252734 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2123982488
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  37. Jenny McMahon , Kerry R. McGannon , Chris Zehntner (2019). I am fast but I do not fit: an autoethnography of a swimmer’s experiences of ‘competitive performance’ stigma in two sporting contexts . Sport, Education and Society, 24(3), 283-297. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2017.1348941 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2726982243
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  38. Vikki Krane (1997). Homonegativism Experienced by Lesbian Collegiate Athletes . Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 6(2), 141-163. Human Kinetics.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1123/wspaj.6.2.141 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2497042609
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  39. Arthur Bochner , Carolyn Ellis (2016). Evocative Autoethnography: Writing Lives and Telling Stories . Routledge.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.4324/9781315545417 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4250305994
    OpenCitations
  40. Brett Smith (2017). Narrative inquiry and autoethnography . In Routledge Handbook of Physical Cultural Studies (pp. 505-514). Routledge.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.4324/9781315745664-51 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2733581272
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  41. Jaimie F. Veale , Tracey Peter , Robb Travers , Elizabeth M. Saewyc (2017). Enacted Stigma, Mental Health, and Protective Factors Among Transgender Youth in Canada . Transgender Health, 2(1), 207-216. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1089/trgh.2017.0031 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2774228466
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  42. Jenny McMahon , Kerry R. McGannon (2020). The athlete–doctor relationship: power, complicity, resistance and accomplices in recycling dominant sporting ideologies . Sport, Education and Society, 25(1), 57-69. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2018.1561434 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2906357803
    OpenAlex OpenCitations
  43. (2005). Disability Discrimination Act . Working with Older People, 9(1), 5-8. Emerald.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1108/13663666200500002 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2950982973
    OpenAlex