Comparing elite male and female distance runner's experiences of disordered eating through narrative analysis

Elite athletic career as a context for life design

“…Bearing in mind that stories are reconstructions of the experiences, analyzing personal narratives may reveal cultural interconnectedness between the unique ways in which people make career decisions and the dominant discourses and narratives that impose coherence on individual experience by means of producing a particular understanding of what careers are and how one is supposed to think, feel and act (Linde, 1993;McLeod, 2006;Stead, 2004). Moreover, recent research in sport psychology has illuminated the benefits of a comparative case study method for gaining a better understanding of athletes' experiences and the ways meanings associated with athletic identity, body, movement and gender are socially and culturally constructed to impact participants' everyday lives (Busanich, McGannon, & Schinke, 2014;Day, Bond, & Smith, 2013). Since case studies often contain extensive narration that captures the complexity and contradictions of lived experiences, the chosen method allowed for retaining the idiosyncratic features of participant stories and examining how multiple storylines were developed simultaneously to form the meaningful link between the athletes' subjective and objective careers (Flyvbjerg, 2006;Yin, 2009).…”

“…Cultural representations of the exemplary athletic career, success, lifestyle, and athletes themselves are oversaturated with the performance narrative in the interconnected global and local spaces, such as that of mega-sport events and homegrown athletic clubs, resulting in structure(s) of meaning closely linked to athletes' identity, self-concept and mental wellbeing (Busanich et al, 2014;Douglas & Carless, 2006Ronkainen, Ryba, & Nesti, 2013). Although Laura and Tero had different motives for initiating a sporting career, they constructed their career identities as that of an athlete and made sense of life projects in connection to athletic development and improvement, personal records and achievements, winning and social recognition.…”

A meta-study of athletic identity research in sport psychology: Current status and future directions

“…Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006); Foucauldian discourse analysis (Willig, 2008) Semi-structured interviews Ryba, Ronkainen, & Selänne (2015) Life design processes in elite sports Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) Structural analysis (Riessman, 2008) Life story interviews Busanich, McGannon, & Schinke (2014) Eating disorders Structural and performative narrative analysis (Lieblich, TuvalMashiach, & Zilber, 1998;,…”

“…However, their studies have also illustrated how some athletes resist the performance narrative and sustain alternative identity narratives (Carless & Douglas, 2013a, 2013bDouglas, 2009). Other researchers have used their typology and connected performance-oriented identity narratives with eating disorders (Busanich et al, 2014;Papathomas & Lavallee, 2014); moreover, others have studied intersection of athletic identity narratives and canonical narratives surrounding gender and age (Ronkainen et al, 2013). The main contribution of narrative studies into athletic identity has been on their analysis of the impact of sport culture on identity construction and opening up athletic identity from an unified construct to a set of different storylines of the athlete self.…”

Athletic identity, compulsive exercise and eating psychopathology in long-distance runners

“…Indeed, athletic identity has been linked to ED psychopathology in studies with larger sample sizes (Busanich, McGannon, & Schinke, 2014;Gapin & Petruzzello, 2011). However, there is a paucity of research that has directly examined the relationship between athletic identity and ED psychopathology in athletes.…”