The Current Status of Goal Orientations and Sports Participation in Persons with Physical Disabilities

There are many people who contributed to this dissertation. Their support was priceless for the finalization of this project and deserves recognition. Above all, one person deserves the most; my wife, Seran Ozturk. Words can never express well enough, her continued support for finishing this dissertation. She not only kept me motivated but also supported me in data collection, and proofreading of this dissertation. She patiently listened, wisely commented, and generously shared her thoughts to make this project a better one. From the academia, I would like to first state my gratitude to Dr. Francis M. Kozub for serving as my dissertation chair, and also for being my academic advisor in this doctoral program. I always benefited from our thought-provoking meetings, his comprehensive comments and propositions both for this project and others. He always cultivated a high-quality research mentality that I will always hang on to. I also want to express my appreciation to Dr. Georgia Frey for her support in improving this dissertation. She provided me with great opportunities throughout my doctoral studies to improve my knowledge and skills in adapted physical education. For shaping of the instrument, and for finalizing the data collection procedures, I am grateful to Dr. John Kennedy. His expertise in survey research methodology as the director of Center for Survey Research at Indiana University, undoubtedly helped for a successful data collection and an overall smooth-going process. Another great aid for this project was Dr. David Koceja. Especially before the dissertation proposal, I felt his significant support in constructing this great committee. The things that I learned in his statistics courses, has been priceless when I was working on the data analysis. The last person that I want to thank from my committee, but not the least is my minor advisor. Dr. Samuel Odom, the director of Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill has been kind to provide me support from a distance. I am really pleased for his presence in this committee. He is another great instructor in helping with my research skills through the graduate courses he offered while he was affiliated with Indiana University. I also want to thank Dr. Claudine Sherrill, professor-emeritus of the Texas Woman’s University in Denton. While I was feeling lost and desperate, she offered a helping hand and took the time to read my draft and provided comments to improve the study. It was an honor to feel her belief in me and her encouragement. This section would not be complete without cordial thanks to Dr. Hilmi Demir, assistant professor of philosophy at California State University, San Bernardino. He spared his valuable time for helping me during the instrument development. Additionally, I want to reveal my sincere appreciation to the panel of experts who revived the instrument in order to fine tune before the conduct of pilot study. There is one group of people who had the biggest contribution to this study. I would like to thank all the athletes for participating; all the administrators, coaches, and event coordinators for allowing me to collect data at their facilities and at tournaments. Without them, this study could not be done. The dissertation was partially funded by Indiana University School of HPER. I was honored that the study was seen to be worthy of support. Also, Turkish Ministry of National Education provided me financial support for graduate studies in U.S. I am thankful all that they bestowed with their financial support. A few people deserve special thanks. I would like to thank my parents, Ulker and Ali Ihsan Ozturk for raising me and providing me with an excellent education, which prepared me for studying in U.S. I want to express gratitude to my brothers Murat Halil and Mustafa Kemal Ozturk for helping keep my peace of mind during this long process. I have always felt the support of my parents in law, Bilge and Aziz Fehmi and my brother in law, Serkan Fehmi. They gave full support during the last years of my graduate studies to make me feel at home in North America.