Career and Family Aspirations of Female Athletic Trainers Employed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Setting

Abstract

Context: Female athletic trainers (ATs) tend to depart the profession of athletic training after the age of 30. Factors influencing departure are theoretical. Professional demands, particularly at the collegiate level, have also been at the forefront of anecdotal discussion on departure factors.Objective: To understand the career and family intentions of female ATs employed in the collegiate setting.Design: Qualitative study. Setting: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. Patients or Other Participants: Twenty-seven female ATs (single ¼ 14, married with no children ¼ 6, married with children ¼ 7) employed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting.Data Collection and Analysis: All female ATs responded to a series of open-ended questions via reflective journaling. Data were analyzed via a general inductive approach. Trustworthiness was established by peer review, member interpretive review, and multiple-analyst triangulation.Results: Our participants indicated a strong desire to focus on family or to start a family as part of their personal aspirations.Professionally, many female ATs were unsure of their longevity within the Division I collegiate setting or even the profession itself, with 2 main themes emerging as factors influencing decisions to depart: family planning persistence and family planning departure. Six female ATs planned to depart the profession entirely because of conflicts with motherhood and the role of the AT. Only 3 female ATs indicated a professional goal of persisting at the Division I setting regardless of their family or marital status, citing their ability to maintain work-life balance because of support networks. The remaining 17 female ATs planned to make a setting change to balance the roles of motherhood and AT because the Division I setting was not conducive to parenting.Conclusions: Our results substantiate those of previous researchers, which indicate the Division I setting can be problematic for female ATs and stimulate departure from the setting and even the profession.Key Words: retention, attrition, work-life balance Key PointsFemale athletic trainers decided to depart the Division I setting because the required hours of the job limited the time available for parenting. Female athletic trainers working in the Division I setting who were able to persist after having a family credit strong support networks and the development of effective work-life balance strategies.

Navigating Motherhood and the Role of the Head Athletic Trainer in the Collegiate Setting

“…27 Regardless of their role in the collegiate setting, ATs experience challenges with work-life balance, which can affect career planning. 15 Career advancement in athletic training has been linked to parenting. 15 In fact, motherhood has been documented as a primary barrier to women assuming leadership positions, particularly the head AT role, in collegiate athletics.…”

“…The second set of questions was open ended and focused on participants' experiences as mothers, ATs, and leaders or managers. The questions were derived from the previous literature 15 and our intended purpose of the study. We also borrowed questions from Mazerolle et al, 16 who investigated the experiences of female head ATs in the Division I setting (Appendix).…”

“…The need for face time leads to inflexible work scheduling, confounding the individual's ability to find balance. Mazerolle et al 15 suggested that female ATs make the choice to leave the collegiate setting and, at times, the athletic training profession because of the long hours worked and the strain they place on the ability to succeed in the roles of both mother and AT.…”

Personality Traits and Burnout Among Athletic Trainers Employed in the Collegiate Setting

“…14,15 Athletic trainers, especially those in the largest setting, college, 16 often work long hours (60þ per week), accompanied by required travel and often minimal control over their weekly work schedule. [17][18][19][20] These factors are organizational in nature and have been linked to experiences of burnout among ATs. 7,14 The time-intensive nature of the profession coupled with the demands of the work setting 4,7,19,21 inherently provide the platform for increased susceptibility to burnout.…”

“…[17][18][19][20] These factors are organizational in nature and have been linked to experiences of burnout among ATs. 7,14 The time-intensive nature of the profession coupled with the demands of the work setting 4,7,19,21 inherently provide the platform for increased susceptibility to burnout. Interestingly, however, in a recent publication, Naugle et al 9 observed that despite working more hours, male ATs reported lower levels of burnout compared with female ATs.…”