| Summary: | Participation in physical activity for people with disabilities will improve their quality of life not only in terms of health but also in social relationships with others. For people with disabilities to be accepted in the community has been challenging, especially participation in physical activity since they still face social isolation from peers without disabilities. Previous studies have shown that, disparities exist in physical activity levels for people with and without disabilities. To understand this issue better, the present study aims to identify the dimension of the public’s personality in its acceptance of participation in physical activity by people with disabilities. A close ended questionnaire was utilized in which the respondents were asked to select an answer from a list provided. The Mini-International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Scale of the Big Five Model (BFM) of personality was adapted and adopted for the dimension of personality traits. Using fishbowl sampling, four public recreation parks located in Klang Valley were chosen to distribute the questionnaire. The questionnaire was collected from members of the public without disabilities during their resting time after participating in physical activity. Of the 460 questionnaires that were distributed, only 444 respondents successfully returned their completed questionnaire. An Independent t-test and correlation analysis (spearman’s rho) was used to analyze the data. A t-test was used to identify the differences between gender in the acceptance of people with disabilities’ participation in physical activity. Meanwhile, correlation analysis examined the relationship between the personality traits domain and public acceptance. The t-test result showed no significant differences in score between gender (M = 5.75, SD =.449) =.72, p =.47 >.05 for the personality traits construct meanwhile, there were significant differences between gender for the agreeableness dimension (M = 5.58, SD =.698) = 2.09, p =.038 <.05 and the intellect dimension (M = 5.82, SD =.662) = 2.17, p =.030 <.050 of the personality traits. Correlation coefficient showed that there was a low relationship (.234), p=.001<.05 between the personality traits construct and public acceptance. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. The findings showed that, the neuroticism dimension (.072), p =.131 > 0.05 of personality traits construct failed to reach a significant relationship between public acceptance. For future study, few recommendations were suggested, such as, using a different sample selection technique (organized physical activity event that includes people with disabilities and people without disabilities). © 2022, Editura Universitatii din Pitesti. All rights reserved.
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