‘Some people treat you like an alien’: Understanding the female athlete experience of belonging on campus

Abstract

College athletes across north America are often known on their respective college campuses for their athleticism, and spend a considerable amount of hours weekly engaging in their respective sport through practices, meetings, travelling and meals, to name a few. It is no wonder it is difficult for these students to feel fully engaged and connected on university campuses as students. Female college athletes in particular, who often are not athletes in revenue-generating sports, often feel left behind as students and isolated as athletes. The purpose of the current study was to examine female collegiate athletes’ experience with belonging in a university setting. This qualitative inquiry utilised consensual qualitative research to explore 14 female student athletes’ experience of belonging on a university campus. The results of the data analysis yielded the following domains or themes: athletic team culture, athletic department culture, campus support and involvement, female athlete identity, and individual athlete experience. The most salient finding was that these female athletes suggested that their sense of belonging on campus was almost exclusively related to their experience as an athlete and their athletic team.

The Need to Belong: a Deep Dive into the Origins, Implications, and Future of a Foundational Construct

“…The specific application of belonging research to educational psychology is often oriented around the terms school belonging (Allen, et al, 2021b;Anderman, 2003;Hamm and Faircloth, 2005;Pittman & Richmond, 2007) and university or college belonging (Arslan, 2021;Slaten et al, 2016Slaten et al, , 2020, although other constructs such as school connectedness, community, membership, and bonding are also used (Allen & Bowles, 2012;Korpershoek et al, 2020). The most common way of describing belonging in educational settings in the literature references a student's feelings of being accepted, respected, and valued-an understanding that first emerged from the work of Goodenow and Grady (1993).…”

Climate change, a critical new role for educational and developmental psychologists

“…The contributions that have already been made by educational and developmental psychology have been wide-ranging and important, but there is further work to be done for educational and developmental psychologists in this space. While there is currently incredible work being produced in the field of educational and developmental psychology, I invite future research to respond to the unprecedented challenges before us (Alloway & Carpenter, 2020;Furlonger et al, 2020;Gindidis et al, 2020;Satici, 2020;Slaten et al, 2020;Spadafora et al, 2020;Zamora et al, 2020;Miller & Berger 2020;Deadman 2020;Frydenberg 2020a;Wilkerson 2020;Frydenberg 2020b). While educational and developmental psychologists are uniquely positioned to help children and young people to cope with stressors and challenges, there is a role for educational and developmental psychologists as a profession to do much more.…”

Parental Challenges in Promoting the Well-being of Talented Youths in Indonesia: A Phenomenological Study

“…Talented youths mostly achieve the highest performance level in certain areas at a very young age (Scantlebury et al, 2020). Consequently, their routines are usually regulated under strict management for training time, travel time for competitions, and studies (Henriksen et al, 2020;Phibbs et al, 2018;Slaten et al, 2020). At the same time, they must learn how to deal with the stress they encounter in every tournament, organization, and in their personal life (Phibbs et al, 2018;Scantlebury et al, 2020;Slaten et al, 2020).…”

“…Consequently, their routines are usually regulated under strict management for training time, travel time for competitions, and studies (Henriksen et al, 2020;Phibbs et al, 2018;Slaten et al, 2020). At the same time, they must learn how to deal with the stress they encounter in every tournament, organization, and in their personal life (Phibbs et al, 2018;Scantlebury et al, 2020;Slaten et al, 2020). All these factors certainly influence their academic achievement and peer relationships (Slaten et al, 2020).…”

“…At the same time, they must learn how to deal with the stress they encounter in every tournament, organization, and in their personal life (Phibbs et al, 2018;Scantlebury et al, 2020;Slaten et al, 2020). All these factors certainly influence their academic achievement and peer relationships (Slaten et al, 2020). Thus, raising talented and/or gifted children may be more challenging than raising their peers (Rouquette, in press;Tessitore et al, 2021).…”