Jennifer E. Bruening

Work-Family Conflict, Part I: Antecedents of Work-Family Conflict in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A Certified Athletic Trainers

CONTEXT Work-family conflict (WFC) involves discord that arises when the demands of work interfere with the demands of family or home life. Long work hours, minimal control over work schedules, and time spent away from home are antecedents to WFC. To date, few authors have examined work-family conflict within the athletic training profession. OBJECTIVE To investigate the occurrence of WFC in certified athletic trainers (ATs) and to identify roots and factors leading to quality-of-life issues for ATs working in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A setting. DESIGN Survey questionnaire and follow-up, in-depth, in-person interviews. SETTING Division I-A universities sponsoring football. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 587 ATs (324 men, 263 women) responded to the questionnaire. Twelve ATs (6 men, 6 women) participated in the qualitative portion: 2 head ATs, 4 assistant ATs, 4 graduate assistant ATs, and 2 AT program directors. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine whether workload and travel predicted levels of WFC. Analyses of variance were calculated to investigate differences among the factors of sex, marital status, and family status. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using computer software as well as member checks and peer debriefing. The triangulation of the data collection and multiple sources of qualitative analysis were utilized to limit potential researcher prejudices. RESULTS Regression analyses revealed that long work hours and travel directly contributed to WFC. In addition to long hours and travel, inflexible work schedules and staffing patterns were discussed by the interview participants as antecedents to WFC. Regardless of sex (P = .142), marital status (P = .687), family status (P = .055), or age of children (P = .633), WFC affected Division I-A ATs. CONCLUSIONS No matter their marital or family status, ATs employed at the Division I-A level experienced difficulties balancing their work and home lives. Sources of conflict primarily stemmed from the consuming nature of the profession, travel, inflexible work schedules, and lack of full-time staff members.

Work-Family Conflict, Part II: Job and Life Satisfaction in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A Certified Athletic Trainers

CONTEXT Previous researchers have shown that work-family conflict (WFC) affects the level of a persons job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and job burnout and intentions to leave the profession. However, WFC and its consequences have not yet been fully investigated among certified athletic trainers. OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between WFC and various outcome variables among certified athletic trainers working in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A settings. DESIGN A mixed-methods design using a 53-item survey questionnaire and follow-up in-depth interviews was used to examine the prevalence of WFC. SETTING Division I-A universities sponsoring football. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 587 athletic trainers (324 men, 263 women) responded to the questionnaire, and 12 (6 men, 6 women) participated in the qualitative portion of the mixed-methods study. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS We calculated Pearson correlations to determine the relationship between WFC and job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and job burnout. Regression analyses were run to determine whether WFC was a predictor of job satisfaction, job burnout, or intention to leave the profession. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using the computer program N6 as well as member checks and peer debriefing. RESULTS Negative relationships were found between WFC and job satisfaction (r = -.52, P < .001). Positive were noted between WFC and job burnout (r = .63, P < .001) and intention to leave the profession (r = .46, P < .001). Regression analyses revealed that WFC directly contributed to job satisfaction (P < .001), job burnout (P < .001), and intention to leave the profession (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Overall, our findings concur with those of previous researchers on WFC and its negative relationships to job satisfaction and life satisfaction and positive relationship to job burnout and intention to leave an organization. Sources of WFC, such as time, inflexible work schedules, and inadequate staffing, were also related to job burnout and job dissatisfaction in this population.

Perspectives on Work-Family Conflict in Sport: An Integrated Approach

The overall literature concerning work-family conflict is growing rapidly, but has failed to incorporate multiple theoretical levels. Instead, researchers have examined the construct from either an individual, structural, or social relations perspective. Investigation of work-family conflict by integrating multiple theoretical levels provides valuable insights regarding the processes and products of work-family conflict, as well as the larger structural and social meanings behind work, family and their interface. Further, sport offers an ideal context for the study of work-family conflict due to the long, non-traditional work hours and significant travel. This article reviews three commonly used theoretical approaches to the study of work-family conflict--individual, structural, and social relations. It then demonstrates within a sport context how the three approaches can be integrated both from a top-down and a bottom-up perspective to better understand the causes, consequences, and interpretation of work-family conflict as an individual experience bounded by and shaped in organisational and social realities.

Gender and Racial Analysis in Sport: Are All the Women White and All the Blacks Men?.

Critical race scholarship focuses on people of color, women, and the intersection of race and gender. Conversely, sport scholarship has refl ected the dominant White male culture. Sport culture ignores the experience of women and people of color, and most specifi cally ignores women who are people of color. This paper provides an overview of the existing sport literature and presents an introduction to the theory and literature on African American women in sport with particular attention to representation and silencing, socialization, and stereotyping. Sport scholars are encouraged to realize that all the women are not White and all the Blacks are not men (Hull, Scott, & Smith, 1982), and that those individuals can have different experiences becoming involved and staying involved in sport.

The Application of Social Cognitive Career Theory to Sport and Leisure Career Choices

Social cognitive career theory is used to investigate student intentions to enter the sport and leisure industry. Data are gathered from 197 undergraduate students from four universities located across the United States. Path analysis supports the general model, as self-efficacy and outcomes expectations hold positive associations with vocational interests, which in turn are positively related to choice goals. Self-efficacy is also positively associated with outcomes expectations. Additionally, through comparison of competing models, support is garnered for the effects of supports (i.e., human and social capital) and barriers (i.e., discrimination and lack of advancement opportunities) to be manifested on self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Exploring the Motives and Retention Factors of Sport-For-Development Volunteers

Due to the importance of volunteers within the sport industry, there have been increased efforts to determine the motivation behind these acts of volunteerism. However, most research has focused on volunteers with professional sporting events and organizations, and very few studies have investigated volunteer motivations behind sport-for-development initiatives. The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivation of volunteers who chose to take part in the World Scholar-Athlete Games, a multinational sport-for-development event, and to identify factors related to their retention. This qualitative study was guided by the functional approach to volunteer motivation. Results revealed volunteers were motivated by values, social, understanding, career and self-enhancement factors. In addition, volunteers whose initial motivations for volunteering were satisfied continued to donate time to the event year after year. Implications for theory and practice, as well as future research directions, are discussed.

Preadolescent female development through sport and physical activity: a case study of an urban after-school program.

Youth development research has found that children become more engaged and benefit more from being incorporated as decision makers. Thus participation helps promote development and encourages engagement. Based in theories of engagement and free-choice learning, the current research focused on a program combining sport/physical activity, life skills, and mentoring while promoting healthy life choices for preadolescent girls of color. The co-investigators, all women, conducted two 2-hr visits per week for two 12-week periods with a group of 8 girls at a community recreation center in Hartford, Connecticut, including lessons in nutrition and life skills and participation in a sport/physical activity. Five of the girls completed every stage of data collection, including participant journals and four individual inter views with each participant and her parents, over the course of the 24 weeks. The co-investigators also kept journals throughout the program. The results refected the following themes: self-esteem/self-worth, accountability/responsibility for self, connections to community and a sense of belonging, knowledge and acquisition of health/life skills, application of those skills, and planning and recognizing ones own influence on self and others.

Technology and Method Intersect in the Online Focus Group

Online focus groups may provide a new tool for research conducted in sport science settings (e.g., psychology, sociology, management, physical education, and recreation). Benefits of online focus groups include the ability for people in multiple locations to respond synchronously via chat rooms or asynchronously via discussion software. Additional benefits include increased equality of participation, greater participant diversity, the matching of research design with research environment, researcher interaction, and the elimination of transcribing. Disadvantages include under representation of non-Internet users, lack of face-to-face contact, potential participant no-show rate, and the difficulty of securing data on the Internet. Sport science scholars are encouraged to examine this emerging method as related to their specific research aims and consider application of online focus groups to further their research.

Examining social capital development among volunteers of a multinational sport-for-development event.

Much sport-for-development (SFD) research has focused on the impact initiatives have on participants, and not on other stakeholders such as volunteers. Some research suggests volunteerism enables social capital gains, while other scholars have been skeptical, with even less known about how volunteers are impacted by working for SFD events rather than for ongoing programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how, if at all, a large, multinational SFD event contributed to social capital development of volunteers. Findings revealed volunteers experienced social capital development through building relationships, learning, and enhanced motivation to work for social change and reciprocity. As very little research has examined the efficacy of SFD events in contributing to social capital development, the findings extend the literature on SFD events. It would be prudent for SFD events to target programming to impact the experience of volunteers to retain them and contribute to social capital d...

Exploring participant motivations to take part in an elite, multinational, sport-for-development event.

IP: 138.25.78.25 On: Sat, 14 Oct 2017 19:32:46 Article(s) and/or figure(s) cannot be used for resale. Please use proper citation format when citing this article including the DOI, publisher reference, volume number and page location. 153 Event Management, Vol. 18, pp. 153–168 1525-9951/14