Uncovering the vulnerabilities of female student-athletes in the career construction framework

Abstract

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to deconstruct the dual career environment success factor model (Henriksen et al., 2020) from a gender perspective and subsequently integrate that perspective into current practices to ensure that women athletes are more effectively supported by coaches and support systems during their dual careers. In Study 1, youth elite cross-country ski coaches (n = 10) were interviewed about their discursive practices in relation to the promotion of education and gender. In Study 2, student-athletes (n = 17) were interviewed about their experiences of coach-created motivational climates and how those climates shaped their dual career experiences. Study 3 examined student-athletes’ (n = 248) motivational orientations in both sport and school and the role of coaching styles and gender in these motivational orientations. Study 4 examined student-athletes’ (n = 391) attributional profiles and their role in predicting student-athletes’ dual career success across school years. The results show that coaches constructed the idea of sport as a male space: drawing upon multiple discourses, the coaches constructed female athletes as “less than” male athletes; there is thus a need to focus on holistic development. The results further showed that an affective coaching style, which was most often demonstrated by female coaches, predicted student-athletes’ mastery-oriented motivation in school and male student-athletes’ mastery-oriented motivation in sport. Similarly, female athletes were found to be more mastery-oriented toward athletic and academic goals than their male counterparts. Finally, student-athletes’ responsible attributional profiles were found to predict their school achievement and dual career continuation at the end of the third year of sport upper secondary school. While gender was not statistically significantly associated with attributional profiles, female athletes were overrepresented and male athletes underrepresented in the “responsible” group. The results can be used to facilitate young female athletes’ development and success in dual career development environments, through the enhancement of coaching practices and support systems that account for the additional pressure and “superwoman” expectations that young female athletes often encounter.