Sports Exercise Science – Page 7

Female Athletes and Eating Disorders

Danielle Soubliere and Priscilla N. Gitimu

Abstract

Sports should prevent athletes from having eating disorders not develop eating disorders. There is evidence that female athletes are at a risk of developing
disordered eating. The purpose of this study was to find how prevalent eating disorders are in female athletes and examine factors that may have a relationship
with eating disorders.

A questionnaire containing two instruments was distributed to volunteer female athletes in a Midwestern university. The EAT 26 was used to measure the prevalence
of eating disorders. The ATHLETE questionnaire was used to inquire some factors that may have a relationship with eating disorders among athletes. Results showed
14.3% of the respondents scored a 20 and above on the EAT 26 and thus considered at risk of having an eating disorder. The ATHLETE questionnaire showed that
there were some significant negative correlations between the EAT 26 score and participant’s feelings about their body, feelings about sports, feelings
about performance, and feelings about eating. The negative correlations meant that the more the participants scored high on their feelings about their body,
sports, performance, and eating, the less likely they scored low on the EAT 26 indicating they did not have a risk of an eating disorder.

This study implies that when athletes feel good about their body, sport, performance and their eating, the less likely they will have an eating disorder. This study
makes an important contribution in understanding female athletes and eating disorders as well as factors that may have a relationship to eating disorders
in female athletes.

Introduction

An eating disorder is a psychological disorder that many women can acquire, ncluding collegiate athletes. Participation in sports activity can be a healthy
and enjoyable experience that can enhance self-worth and self-image in female athletes (12). Many people may believe that because athletes participate in
sports and maintain high levels of physical activity, they are not as self-conscience about their bodies. Contrary to this belief, (1) stated in their study that
athletes are at a greater risk for developing eating disorders than non-athletes. Why female athletes have eating disorders when they are so active is a question
of interest to many people. The purpose of this study is to find how prevalent eating disorders are in female athletes and examine factors that may have a
relationship with eating disorders.

Incorrect weight perceptions are more common in young women, with persistent overestimation of weight and attempts to lose weight even when unnecessary (7).
(5) stated that female athletes are a group particularly at risk for developing eating disorders or engaging in unhealthy behaviors to control their weight.
These athletes not only face the typical social pressures to be thin, but they also are immersed in a social context that focuses on their bodies.

Eating disorders are behavioral syndromes associated with considerable mobility that present onset of the highest mortality rates among mental illnesses. The
prevalence of eating disorders’ has increased since the 1990s in both female athletes and non-athletes. Female athletes go through a lot of pressures
and conflicts playing collegiate sports. Female athletes are a group particularly at risk for developing eating disorders or engaging in unhealthy behaviors to
control their weight (13).

The western cultural emphasis given to weight and body shape points towards a “beauty standard” centered on thinness disorders (11). For some
female college athletes, college concerns and pressures may contribute to eating disorders or disordered eating behaviors (6). The sports environment can heighten
body and weight related concerns because of factors such as pressure from coaches and social comparisons, body dissatisfaction, physique anxiety, and perfectionism
(6, 11). A lack of professional guidance can make an athlete vulnerable to the onset of disordered eating (10). It appears that negative moods such as anxiety,
perfectionism, and negative comments about body shape or weight from coaches are related to disorder eating in female athletes (1). (9) found that social
pressure on body shape was strongly correlated with body dissatisfaction. Female athletes’ body dissatisfaction has shown correlation with bulimia (6).
According to (7), perfectionism, for example in sports has been found to be a risk factor for bulimic symptoms.

However, prevalence of clinical and subclinical eating disorders has been found to be higher-among female athletes than non-athletes (5). Young women, particularly
those in aesthetic sports are vulnerable to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, and disordered eating (10). Situational factors specifically involvement in
individual sports or team sports, may put athletes in situations where social physique anxiety and disordered eating is likely to be heightened to manage
weight and shape concerns (13, 8).

This is an important topic because although physical activity enhances self-esteem and promotes physical and emotional well-being, there is evidence that female
athletes are at a risk of developing disordered eating. It is important to investigate some of the reasons why female collegiate athletes feel the need to have disordered
eating. Results of the study can assist in developing and executing suitable eating-disorder prevention and intervention programs for female college athletes.
The purpose of the study was twofold. First, it was to assess how prevalent eating disorders were among female college athletes. Secondly, it was to explore
some factors that may have a relationship with eating disorders.

Methods

Participants
There were 56 participants in total, including 11 freshman, 21 sophomores, 13 juniors and 11 seniors. The following sports were included: soccer (23.2%),
softball (23.2%), track and field (41.1%), and swimming (12.5%). The age range was between 18 to 22 years, with over 98% being between 18 and 21 years. The
entire sample was Caucasian with an exception of one participant.
Instruments

A questionnaire was used to collect data, it included a demographic section on age, sex, height, weight and race of the participants. Two instruments were
included in the questionnaire, the first being the EAT 26 by (4), which measured prevalence of eating disorders among athletes. The EAT 26 has been used extensively
in research as a reliable measure of prevalence of eating disorders. The EAT-26 scale is comprised of these dimensions: dieting, bulimia and food preoccupation,
and oral control. Each item on the scale is rated on a scale of 0-6 as follows: never=0, rarely=0, sometimes=0, often=1, usually=2, and always=3, except for
item 25 which is reverse scored.

Second was the ATHLETE questionnaire, which was used to inquire some factors that may relate with eating disorders among athletes. The ATHLETE questionnaire
is a reliable and valid measure of factors that may relate to disordered eating in athletes (9). The ATHLETE questionnaire has the following factors that have
shown association with disordered eating: feelings about being an athlete, the athlete’s body and sports, feelings about performance, team support, feelings
about one’s body, and feelings about eating.

Both instruments showed acceptable reliability. The EAT 26 included 26 items and yielded a reliability value of .76. The six factors in the ATHLETE questionnaire
demonstrated the following reliability values: feelings about being an athlete included five items with a reliability of .71, athlete’s body and sports
included 12 items with a reliability of .87, feelings about performance included seven items with a reliability of .67, team support included four items with
a reliability of .73, feelings about one’s body included six items a reliability of .85, and feelings about eating included four items with a reliability of
.85.

Procedures
The researchers first obtained Human subjects approval from the IRB before conducting the study. The questionnaire was distributed to the participants, and it contained
the demographic section of the questionnaire, the EAT 26, and the ATHLETE questionnaire. The questionnaire was given to volunteer female athletes at a Midwestern university.
A volunteer female athlete served as the monitor and distributed the questionnaires. The study was conducted in the absence of the coach and the researchers so that
the participants would not feel any coercion to participate in the study. The consent information for the participants was included at the beginning of the
questionnaire. The consent information explained that participating in the study was totally voluntary and that by completing the questionnaire, the participant
was giving consent to participate in the study. The questionnaire was completed anonymously and since there were no signed informed consent it was not possible
to identify individuals who participated in the study nor those whose scores indicated they were at risk of an eating disorder. Due to the sensitive nature
of the study, all participants were provided with referral information to their school’s health center and the crises hotline center, in case they realized
they were at risk of acquiring an eating disorder.

Statistical analysis
The data was entered into SPSS program – PASW Statistics 18. Reliability test for the EAT 26 and the ATHLETE questionnaire was analyzed. Descriptive statistics
were analyzed for the EAT 26. Those who scored EAT 26=20 were considered at risk of having an eating disorder. ANOVAs were computed to compare the means
of EAT 26 by year in school, age, weight, and sport participation. Correlations were completed between the EAT 26 and the factors of the ATHLETE questionnaire.

Results

There were 56 total participants who responded to the questionnaire. Frequencies were completed for EAT 26. If the participant scored EAT 26=20, then they were
considered at risk of having an eating disorder. Results showed that 8 female athletes, (14.3%) scored a 20 and above and were thus considered at risk of
having an eating disorder. The EAT 26 mean was 7.9 and standard deviation was 7.6. Figure 1 shows details of how the participants responded to the EAT 26.

ANOVAs were used to compare the means of EAT 26 by classification year, age, weight, and sports participation. Only age showed a significant difference in
means for the EAT 26. Further, Cross tabs were completed between those who had EAT26=20 and age. Results showed all of the 8 participants who had EAT 26=20
were 19 years of age.

Descriptive statistics were conducted on how the female athletes performed on the ATHLETE questionnaire, which can be seen in Table 1. Pearson correlation
was conducted to see whether there was a relationship between EAT 26 and ATHLETE questionnaire factors.
These four factors in the ATHLETE questionnaire demonstrated significant Pearson correlation values with EAT 26: feelings about body and sports with a correlation
of -.53, feelings about performance with a correlation of -.51, feelings about your body with a correlation of -.50, and feelings about eating with a correlation
of -.31. These two factors in the ATHLETE questionnaire did not demonstrate significant Pearson correlation values with EAT 26: feelings about being an
athlete, and team support. Table 2 shows details about correlations between EAT 26 and the ATHLETE questionnaire factors.

Discussion

This study found 14.3 % of female athletes were considered at risk of having an eating disorder. This study also reported that everyone found to have an
eating disorder was 19 years old. The ATHLETE questionnaire showed that there were some significant negative correlations between the EAT 26 score and participant’s
feelings about their body, feelings about sports, feelings about performance, and feelings about eating. The negative correlations meant that the more the
participants scored high on their feelings about their body, sport, performance, and eating, the less they scored on the EAT 26, indicating they did not have
an eating disorder.

Two of the factors in the ATHLETE questionnaire dealt with body image; the athlete’s body and sports, and feelings about one’s body. Both factors
had a significant negative correlation with EAT 26 scores. This indicated that the female athletes’ who scored high on the athlete’s body and sports,
and feelings about one’s body were likely to score low on the EAT-26. Hence, indicating they were not likely to be at risk of an eating disorders.
This finding concurs with the study by (2), which contended that body image dissatisfaction is the strongest predictor of eating disorder symptoms.

A study done (6) stated that sport-related pressures such as weight limits, teammates’ eating-related behaviors, judging criteria, revealing uniforms,
and coach expectations have been suggested as potential risk factors for an athlete to develop an eating disorder. Our study found that team support and
feelings about being an athlete did not have a relationship with eating disorders. Another study done by (10) stated that families, peers, and coaches can have
a major effect on female athletes. Our study did not show that pressures from the participant’s families, peers, and coaches had any effect on the athlete
and eating disorders.

This study found that ‘feelings about performance’ in the ATHLETE had a significant negative correlation with the EAT 26 total. This indicated
that the more the athletes felt good about their performance in sports, the less likely they were at risk of an eating disorder. This finding concurs with
(1) study that stated that negative moods such as anxiety and perfectionism were related to disordered eating in female athletes.

In the current study, all participants who scored EAT 26=20, were 19 years old, and were either sophomores or juniors in school. There were no freshman
or seniors found to have a risk of an eating disorder. This indicates that the female athlete participants felt more pressure or problems with their eating
in the middle of their college years. This finding concurs with the study by (2), which stated that eating and dieting problems in college freshman women
was fairly stable across the first year of college. The current study suggests that the female athletes develop some eating disorder as they try to lose weight
in the sophomore year and stabilize by the fourth year. More research is needed on eating disorders of female athletes through the four college years.

Since the participants is this study was were nearly all Caucasian, this study may have found higher levels of disordered eating concerns than a more diversified
sample. Future similar studies can build on this study by having a larger proportion of other ethnicities. In addition, future similar studies can have a wider range
of sport, especially sports where the athletes’ uniforms for competition are more revealing such as swimming, dance, and gymnastics.

Conclusion

This study shows that eating disorders are prevalent among female athletes. Some factors that have a relationship with eating disorders include feelings
about their body, sports performance, and eating. This study also shows that feelings about being an athlete such as being competitive and team support did
not show much relationship with eating disorders.
This study makes an important contribution in understanding females and eating disorders, as well the factors that may have a relationship in causing eating
disorders in female athletes.

Application to Sport

Eating disorders are still an issue of concern among female athletes. This study reveals that the more female athletes felt good about their body, sports,
performance, and eating, the more likely they would not have an eating disorder. Feelings about an athlete like being competitive and team support did not show
much relationship with eating disorders. To keep away from disordered eating, female athletes ought to have positive inner feelings about themselves.

Sports participation among college females should be encouraged because this will improve their ‘feelings about their body’ and in turn make
them less at risk of getting an eating disorder. Participation in sports activity can be a healthy and enjoyable experience that can enhance self-worth and self-image
in female athletes (12). Since body image dissatisfaction is the strongest predictor of eating disorder symptoms (2), then body image holds the most promise as a
focus for prevention programs of eating disorder among college female athletes.

Disordered eating prevention efforts offered by college counseling centers for female athletes should focus on promoting students’ acceptance of their own
bodies. Such efforts will counteract the media influences that propagates the extremely ‘thin ideal’ that is unattainable by most normal female
athletes. A school-based sport centered program can be useful in deterring females from disordered eating (3). For those working with athletes, they should avoid
equating thinness to sport performance. They should be encouraged to become more knowledgeable and responsible regarding the critical role of healthy eating
and nutrition in female athletes. Such knowledge will equip them to play a significant role identifying, managing, and preventing eating disorders among female athletes
and increase prospects of a positive sport experience for female athletes. Female athletes ought to be encouraged to regard their health first before sports performance.
Consequently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) emphasizes an athlete’s health rather than weight and body composition (12).

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the anonymous volunteer female athletes who agreed to participate in this study.

References

1. Arthur-Cameselle, J., Quatromoni, P.(2011). Factors related to the onset
of eating disorders reported by female collegiate athletes. The Sport Psychologist,
25(1), 1-17.

2. Cooley, E., & Toray, T. (2001). Disordered Eating in College Freshman
Women: A Prospective Study. Journal of American College Health, 49(5), 229.

3. Elliot D, Goldberg L, Moe E, et al. (2004). Preventing substance use and
disordered eating: Initial outcomes of the ATHENA program. Arch Pediatric Adolescent
Medicine, 158:1043-1049.

4. Garner, D. M., Olmsted, M. P., Bohr, Y., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1982).
The Eating Attitudes Test: Psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychological
Medicine, 12, 871–878.

5. Greenleaf, C., Petrie, T., Carter, J., Reel, J.(2009). Female collegiate
athletes: prevalence of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors. Journal
of American College Health, 57(5) 485-495.

6. Greenleaf, C., Petrie, T., Reel, J., Carter, J. (2010). Psychosocial risk
factors of bulimic symptomatology among female athletes. Journal of Clinical
Sport Psychology, 4, 177-190.

7. Haase, A.(2011). Weight perception in female athletes: association with
disordered eating correlates and behavior. Eating Behaviors, 12,64-67. doi:
10.1016/j.eatbeth.2010.09.004.

8. Haase, A. (2009). Physique anxiety and disordered eating correlates in female
athletes: differences in team and individual sports. Journal of Clinical Sports
Psychology, 3, 218-231.

9. Hinton, P. S., & Kubas, K. L. (2005). Psychosocial Correlates of Disordered
Eating in Female Collegiate Athletes: Validation of the ATHLETE Questionnaire.
Journal of American College Health, 54(3), 149-156.

10. Kerr, G., Berman, E., Jane De Souza, M. J.(2006). Disordered eating in
women’s gymnastics: perspectives of athletes, coaches, parents, and judges.
Journal and Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 28-43. doi: 10.1080/10413200500471301.

11. Oliveria Coelho, G., Soares, E., & Ribeiro, B.(2010). Are female athletes
at increased risk for disordered eating and its complications. Appetite, 55,
379-387. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.08.003.

12. Sherman, R., & Thompson, R. A. (2006). Practical use of the International
Olympic Committee position stand on the female athlete triad; a case example.
International Journal of Eating Disorders, 39(3), 193-201. Doi:10..1002/eat.20232.

13. Sundgot-Borgen, J., & Torstviet, M.(2010). Aspects of disordered eating
continuum in elite high- intensity sports. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine
and Science in Sports, 20, 112-121. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01190x.

14. Torstviet, M., Rosenvinge, J., & Sundgot-Borgan, J.(2008). Prevalence
of eating disorders and the predictive power of risk models in female elite
athletes: a controlled study. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in
Sports, 18, 108-118. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2001.00657x.

Figures and Tables

Fig 1- Eat 26 Performance

Legend: Figure 1 shows frequencies of the EAT 26 totals for the female athletes,N=56. If the participant scored EATS 26=20 then they were considered at risk
of having an eating disorder. Figure 1 shows that eight participants (14.3%) had EAT 26=20.

Table 2 – Descriptive Statistics of the ATHLETE Questionnaire

Legend: Table 2 shows the ATHLETE questionnaire which was used to inquire
some factors that may relate with eating disorders among athletes. The ATHLETE questionnaire
has six factors. Table 2 lists the six factors, sample questions on each factor,
as well as the descriptive statistics for the ATHLETE questionnaire.

Factors of the ATHLETE questionnaire	Sample Question on the ATHLETE QUESTIONNIARE	No of Items	Total Possible	Mean	SD
Feelings about being an athlete	I cannot imagine what I will be like when I am no longer competing	5	25	16.3	3.5
The athlete’s body and sports	I would be more successful in my sport if my body looked better and I often wish I were leaner so I could perform better	12	60	41.1	9.4
Feelings about performance	No matter how successful I am, I never feel satisfied and my parents expect more of me athletically than I do for myself	7	35	22.8	4.9
Team support	It is hard to get close to my teammates because we are constantly competing against each other	4	20	16.9	2.4
Feelings about one’s body	My friends (non-athletes) make me feel I am too fat	6	30	25.2	4.2
Feeling about eating	I feel uncomfortable eating in front of my friends	4	20	17.6	4.3

Table 3- Correlations between EAT 26 and the ATHLETE questionnaire
Legend: Table 3 shows the Pearson correlation values between EAT 26 and
the ATHLETE questionnaire factors. These four factors in the ATHLETE questionnaire
demonstrated significant Pearson correlation values with EAT 26; feelings about
body and sports; feelings about performance; feelings about your body; and feelings
about eating. These two factors in the ATHLETE questionnaire did not demonstrate
significant Pearson correlation values with EAT 26; feelings about being an
athlete, and team support.

Factors of the ATHLETE questionnaire	Pearson Correlation With EAT 26
Feelings about being an athlete	.139
The athlete’s body and sports	-.530**
Feelings about performance	-.507**
Team support	.127
Feelings about one’s body	-.502**
Feeling about eating	-.313*

** .01 correlation is significant at the .01 level
*.05 correlation is significant at the .05 level

U.S. Sports Academy2016-10-20T14:59:00-05:00November 15th, 2012|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology, Women and Sports|Comments Off

Description of Phases and Discrete Events of the Lacrosse Shot

Submitted by John A. Mercer and Jason H. Nielson

Abstract

The lacrosse shot is a vital skill of the offensive player. Despite the growth of the sport of lacrosse, there is a paucity of research on describing the biomechanics of lacrosse specific skills. The purpose of this commentary is to describe the phases and discrete events during a lacrosse shot. Phases are logical groups of movements used to accomplish a common goal whereas discrete events are specific actions that occur during a movement. For the purpose of this commentary, the lacrosse shot described is one that is taken with the intent of shooting as fast as possible. Through inspection of practice, game, and publically available video (30-1000 Hz) for a variety of ability and ages, this lacrosse shot can be described using the following phases: Approach, crank-back, stick acceleration, stick deceleration, follow through, and recovery. Each phase is defined by specific discrete events that indicate the beginning/ending of the phase. This paper forms a frame work for research on the lacrosse shot as well as coaching tips for enhancement of the shot. The end-goal of this work is to assist coaches and players in identifying the critical features of the lacrosse shot that are important for achieving a high-velocity and accurate shot.

Introduction

Although the sport of lacrosse has a long and rich history, there is a paucity of research on the movements and skills that are part of the game. Participation in lacrosse has grown 10% per year on average from 2001 to 2010 (18). The total increase in number of players (male and female) has grown from 253,931 players in 2001 to 624,593 players in 2010 with the greatest growth in youth and high school levels (18). Overall, youth lacrosse growth has outpaced the growth of any other sport.

Along with this growth has come a need for coaching expertise to teach players critical skills and game play strategy. Interestingly, the sport is lacking in even basic kinematic description of certain key movements. For example, even though some research on lacrosse is emerging on injuries (4, 7, 8, 9, 12), conditioning/testing techniques (11, 15), accuracy (14), passing (13) and shooting (6) kinematics, ball (5), and player (16, 17) characteristics and some early work on teaching lacrosse skills (2, 3), there is no kinematic description of the phases and discrete events of the shot.

It makes sense to develop a description of certain key movements that are part of the shot in order to identify critical features that increase performance and/or skill acquisition. For example, baseball pitching has a strong body of research that includes description of phases and discrete events of the baseball pitch. Kinematic and Kinetic data are often analyzed within a phase in order to compare and contrast different types of pitches, for example (e.g., 10). Presently, there is no such description of the phases and discrete events of the lacrosse shot.

Part of the challenge in forming a model of the lacrosse shot is that there are many different techniques for shooting a lacrosse ball. For example, some players shoot overhand, some underhand, or side arm. Likewise, there are many game situations where the shot technique is unique due to the position of the player shooting as well as the interaction with the defender and/or goalie. For example, players may be positioned just outside the goal crease and will receive a pass and shoot in one continuous motion (i.e., “quick stick”). Likewise, during a game, players are often dodging defenders and shooting on the run while being checked, jumping, and/or having movements hindered in some manner by the defender. For that reason, it is difficult to fit all lacrosse shots into a single descriptive model. Nevertheless, it is important to form a model of the lacrosse shot as a framework for research to identify the critical aspects necessary for an accurate and high speed shot. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the phases and discrete events of the lacrosse shot.

The Lacrosse Shot

For the purpose of this paper, we will describe the phases and discrete events of a situation where a player is shooting at the goal with maximal velocity. In this scenario, the player is allowed to take approach steps. This would be analogous to a player shooting from the perimeter of the box with no defender hindering or restricting movement in any way. This type of shot is common in a game, especially off a fast break when a face off is won or during a man-up situation (i.e., the opposing team is playing with one less defender due to a penalty situation).

To gain an understanding of the kinematics, we reviewed game, practice, and publically available (YouTube) video taken from a wide range of ability and ages of players that used a variety of recording speeds (30-1000 Hz). In these videos, the camera placement was often unique which allowed for viewing the shot from different perspectives. Overall, the movements could be grouped into logical phases consisting of approach, crank-back (wind-up), stick acceleration, deceleration, follow-through, and recovery. We also felt it was important to further break down the crank-back phase into two smaller phases (i.e., A and B) since we think the preparatory movements in each of these sub-phases are important to shot performance.

In order to describe the phases and discrete events of the shot, it is necessary to first define some lacrosse specific terminology. Figure 1 is an illustration of a player in the act of shooting. We will use the term ‘stick’ when referring to the combination of two main equipment components: The shaft and the head. The head is firmly connected to the shaft (however, the head can be removed and placed on a different shaft). In this illustration, a short stick is used. There are times when a player is shooting using a long-pole or goalie stick; in these situations, the phases and discrete events are the same as presented here, but the movements in each phase may be unique due to the characteristics of the stick (e.g., length, mass, moment of inertia).

Figure 1: Illustration of a player in the act of shooting. Top arm, Bottom arm, Drive leg, and Lead leg are all illustrated.

For player specific terminology, we will use the phrase ‘bottom arm’ to refer to the entire limb distal to the shoulder (i.e., upper arm, forearm, hand) in which the hand is gripping the shaft near the end the shaft. We will use the phrase ‘bottom hand’ when referring specifically to the hand of the bottom arm. We will use ‘top arm’ and ‘top hand’ to refer to the arm/hand that grips the shaft between the bottom hand and stick head. A right handed shot is one in which the right arm is the top arm; a left handed shot is one where the left arm is the top arm.

For the lower extremity, we will use the term ‘drive leg’ to refer to the leg that is planted on the ground pushing the player forward. Likewise, we will use the term ‘lead leg’ to refer to the leg that is planted in front of the player while shooting. Analogous terms for ‘lead leg’ are ‘plant leg’ or ‘blocking leg.’ When shooting right handed, the drive leg is the right leg and the lead leg is the left leg (vice versa for shooting left handed).

The phases of the shot and the discrete events separating each phase are described in Table 1 and described in more detail below.

Approach. The approach begins with the player initiating movement and ends when the foot of the drive leg contacts the ground. During this phase, the player is taking several steps advancing towards the goal with the intent to shoot. The number of steps, the style of the approach (e.g., stepping forward, sideways, backwards, cross-over, hopping, etc.), and the velocity of the approach varies between players. However, what is common among all the approach styles is that it ends when the drive leg contacts the ground.
Crank back. The crank back is analogous to the wind-up or cocking phase of throwing a ball. This phase consists of the preparatory movements that proceed accelerating the stick (i.e., angular motion) with the intent of releasing the ball towards the goal. The crank back begins with the foot of the drive leg contacting the ground and ends when the top arm reaches maximum elbow flexion. If a 3D motion capture analysis is completed, an alternative ending discrete event would be the moment when stick angular acceleration velocity is continuously in the same direction as during the Stick Acceleration phase (next). We have further sub-divided the crank back phase into two sub-phases (A and B).

o Crank back – A. The Crank back – A phase begins when the foot of the drive leg contacts the ground and ends when the foot of the lead leg contacts the ground. This phase could also be described as a ‘drive step’ when focusing on the lower extremity.

o Crank back – B. The Crank back – B phase begins with lead foot contact and ends when the elbow of the top arm reaches maximum flexion. The movements in this phase are still preparatory movements to accelerating the stick towards the goal and would still be considered ‘wind-up’ movements.

Stick acceleration. Stick acceleration begins when the elbow of the top arm has reached maximum flexion and then starts extending. This phase ends with ball release. The duration of this phase is very short and dynamic.
Stick deceleration. Stick deceleration begins once the ball release has occurred and ends when the elbow of the top arm has reached maximum extension.
Follow-through. The follow-through phase begins when the top arm has reached maximum extension and ends when trunk rotation has been terminated.
Recovery. The recovery phase begins with the end of trunk rotation and represents the movements the player needs to make to prepare for the next task.

Table 1: The phases and discrete events that describe the lacrosse shot.

Figure 2 is an illustration of the discrete events for the lacrosse shot in a time lapse sequence. Although this gives a good visual of the separation of phases, the figure is limited in that it does not give a sense of the duration of each phase. It would be helpful through future research to document the timing of the phases for different skill levels as well as when comparing left and right handed shots of an individual player.

Figure 2: Phases (bottom) and Discrete Events (top) of the lacrosse shot.

Discussion

The intent of creating a model of the phases and discrete events for the lacrosse shot is to create a framework for research as well as constructing coaching tips for the enhancement of shot speed and accuracy. For example, recently we investigated muscle activity of the top and bottom arms during shooting (1). In that study, we examined the muscle activity ½ second before and after ball release. Although it was insightful to identify the different roles of muscles when considering the top and bottom arms and that the wrist flexors/extensors were more active than suspected, the meaningfulness of that work would be more significant if muscle activity were described for each phase. This type of research would provide insight into the importance of timing of muscle contractions that led to a faster shot velocity. Likewise, that research would lead to developing training programs and drills to develop a faster shot that is also accurate.

The advantage of using the phases as a framework for research is that movements that share a common goal are grouped together. For example, it makes sense to understand muscle activity magnitudes and patterns during the crank-back phase of the shot independent of the magnitudes and patterns during the time when the stick is being accelerated to release the ball. In our previous work (1), the ½ second analysis before ball release likely represented muscle activity during both crank back and stick acceleration phases. We now believe that analyzing muscle activity within each phase is important in identifying the critical features of a shot that allow for high ball velocity at release and/or accuracy of the shot. For example, the initial inspection of elbow flexion/extension patterns has lead to the hypothesis that peak elbow flexion velocity during the crank back-B phase is important to shot velocity (1). It may be that elbow flexion preceding elbow extension during the stick acceleration phase elicits a stretch-shortening reflex that increases elbow extension velocity during the acceleration phase. The analogy is that elbow flexion during crank back-B would serve to function similar in the same manner as the downward (i.e., counter-movement) movement during a vertical jump. The implications of this observation, if it is substantiated by research, is that training programs should be focused on strengthening exercises that incorporate elbow flexion preceding rapid extension vs. simply strengthening elbow extension.

By creating terminology for phases and discrete events, not only will research be given a context of which to formulate description of kinematics and kinetics of the shot, coaching tips may be more directed and purposeful. For example, some players might be able to increase shot speed if unnecessary crank-back movements are eliminated and/or the stick is positioned properly prior to the acceleration phase (i.e., during crank back-B phase). Research is needed to compare and contrast the kinematics during each phase between players with different level of skill as well as between shooting left and right handed. This type of research would likely be helpful to coaches and trainers in order that there is a better understanding of which movements to reinforce and which movements should be eliminated during a shot to maximize speed.

It is important to recognize that the phases and discrete event model presented is limited and there may be times when the model needs to be modified. For example, there may be some benefit to studying shot kinematics when there is no approach phase. This would be analogous to shooting while both feet are planted. Although shot speed is not maximized in this scenario, there are game scenarios when players have to shoot quickly vs. trying to shoot as fast as possible. In this case, the discrete events of drive leg and lead leg contact would need to be modified since both feet are in contact with the ground in this scenario. It is hoped that this commentary will stimulate further research on the lacrosse shot and other models of different styles of shooting are created.

There may also be a need to modify the discrete events used to define each phase. For example, depending on the instruments available to analyze the shot kinematics, the start of stick acceleration may be best defined based upon when the angular velocity of the stick is continuously in the direction of the shot (vs. maximum top arm elbow flexion). In order to capture that, either a 2D top-view or 3D kinematic analysis would need to be carried out. In the present model, we based the discrete event identification from a 2D camera placed either to the side or slightly behind/in front of the player.

It is important to also recognize that the discrete events themselves may not be critical movement characteristics. The importance of the specific discrete events, for this paper, is that they define the start and end of a phase. Biomechanical analyses can then be focused on maximum and/or minimum kinematic and kinetic parameters during each phase. We also believe that it makes sense to compare kinematics and kinetics of the upper and lower body at the occurrence of the discrete events. For example, the horizontal stick position at the moments of drive and lead leg contact may be important characteristics of the shot.

Summary

We have presented a model of the phases and discrete events of the lacrosse shot along with basic terminology (e.g., top arm, top hand, bottom arm, bottom hand, drive leg, lead leg) that can be used when describing movement characteristics during the lacrosse shot. The phases represent groups of movements that share a common goal that contributes to shot speed. Each phase is separated by a discrete event, which is a specific event that occurs in a brief moment in time. In the context of shooting the ball for to achieve maximum velocity, we described the shot using the approach, crank-back (A and B sub-phases), stick acceleration, stick deceleration, follow through, and recovery phases. This model will provide a frame work for lacrosse directed research as well as providing a context for coaching tips to improve shot speed.

References

Agnelli, C., McCllelan, J., Tarno, J., Nielson, J., & Mercer, J.A. (2011). Preliminary inspection of muscle activity during a lacrosse shot. Proceedings from the annual meeting of the Southwest Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine, October.
Barrett, K.R., & Collie, S. (1996). Children learning lacrosse from teachers learning to teach it: The discovery of pedagogical content knowledge by observing children’s movement. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 67, 297-309.
Barrett, K.R., Williams, K., McLester, J., & Ljungkvist (1997). Developmental sequences for the vertical cradle in lacrosse: An exploratory study. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 16, 469-489.
Bowers, A.L., Horneff, J.G., Baldwin, K.D., Huffmman, R., & Sennett, B.J. (2010). Thumb injuries in Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 38, 527-531.
Crisco, J.J., Drewniak, E.I., Alvarez, M.P., & Spenciner, D.B. (2005). Physical and mechanical properties of various field lacrosse balls. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 21, 383-393.
Crisco, J.J., Rainbow, M.J., & Wang, E. (2009). Modeling the lacrosse stick as a rigid body underestimates shot ball speeds. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 25, 184-191.
Dick, R., Agel, J., & Marshall, S.W. (2007). National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System Commentaries: Introduction and methods. Journal of Athletic Training, 42, 173-182.
Dick, R., Romani, W.A., Agel, J., Case, J.G., & Marshall, S.W. (2007). Descriptive epidemiology of collegiate Men’s Lacrosse injuries: National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System, 1988-1989 through 2003-2004. Journal of Athletic Training, 42, 255-261.
Elkousy, H.A., Janssen, H., Ferraro, J., Levin, S., & Speer, K. (2000). Lacrosse goalkeeper’s thumb. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 28, 317-321.
Escamilla, R.F., Fleisig, G.S., Barrentine, S.W., Zheng, N., & Andrews, J.R. (1998). Kinematic comparisons of throwing different types of baseball pitches. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 14, 1-23.
Gutowski, A.E., & Rosene, J.M. (2011). Preseason performance testing battery for men’s lacrosse. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 33, 16-22.
Hinton, R.Y., Lincoln, A.E., Almquist, J.L., Douoguih, W.A., & Sharma, K.M. (2005). Epidemiology of lacrosse injuries in high school-aged girls and boys. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 33, 1305-1314.
Livingston L.A. (2006). Recent crosse designs increase ball velocity: Implications for injury in women’s lacrosse. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 9, 299-303.
Marsh, D.W., Richard, L.A., Verre, A.B., & Myers, J. (2010). Relationships among balance, visual search, and lacrosse-shot accuracy. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24, 1507-1514.
Pistilli, E.E., Ginther, G., & Larsen, J. (2008). Sport –specific strength-training exercises for the sport of lacrosse. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 30, 31-38.
Schmidt, M.N., Gray, P., & Tyler, S. (1981). Selected fitness parameters of college female lacrosse players. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 21, 282-90.
Shaver, L.G. (1980). Body composition, endurance capacity and strength of college lacrosse players. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 20, 213-20.
US Lacrosse (2010). 2010 Participation Survey. Retrieved from http://www.uslacrosse.org.

U.S. Sports Academy2014-05-13T14:36:19-05:00August 24th, 2012|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Technical Abilities of Elite Wheelchair Basketball Players

E. Zacharakis, N. Apostolidis, N. Kostopoulos, T. Bolatoglou

### Abstract

Wheelchair basketball met a rapid growth in recent decades and became one of the most popular and spectacular sports for people with disabilities. Researchers’ efforts to perform tests evaluating the physiological and technical characteristics of the disable athletes have been based on the adoption of tests, used for healthy athletes (7, 15). In addition, different types of disabilities obligated the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation to establish classification degree for the athletes, ranging from 1 to 4.5, according to their disability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Greek elite basketball players’ technical skills and to compare their performance, (a) with their classification degree and (b) with recent literature. Fourteen (N=14) Greek wheelchair basketball players, all members of the national team, volunteered to perform six skill tests: (a) 20m sprint, (b) free throws, (c) lay-ups, (d) obstacle dribble, (e) pass for accuracy, and (f) pass for distance. The high classification degree athletes, demonstrated significantly higher performance than those with low classification, only in obstacle dribble test (p <.01), but the trend indicated that athletes with high classification degree demonstrated better performance on tests requiring physical abilities (sprint, lay-ups, obstacle dribble, pass for distance), while those with low classification degree performed better on tests requiring skills and concentration (free throws, pass for accuracy). These results are in accordance with recent literature, although Greek basketball players, demonstrated lower performance compared with those of other countries, where wheelchair basketball is widespread (13). The difference between high and low classification players in obstacle dribble test, caused to the lack of abdominal muscles, while overall performance is affected by the frequency of training and years of involvement with the sport, before the time point of injury (9).

**Key words:** wheelchair, basketball, technical skills

### Introduction

Sporting activities for people with physical disabilities became widespread in recent years. Wheelchair basketball, which is regarded as one of the most popular and spectacular sports for people with disabilities, devised at the end of the Second World War. Specifically, in 1944 the British government commissioned Dr. Guttmann to establish a foundation for care and hospitalization of world-war II spinal cord injured soldiers, in the area of Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Specifically, the team called “The Flying Wheels of Birmingham” is the one that has the legal right to invoke that have devised the wheelchair basketball (1946). The evaluation of the wheelchair basketball players’ technical skills has interested researchers and trainers in the past (4, 14-15). The evaluation methods for the technical characteristics of wheelchair basketball players, mainly based on similar tests used for healthy players (1-2, 11).

The ability to perform the technical skills required for the sport, characterized by the different type and degree, of the players’ disabilities. Each athlete is classified according to degree of disability, and the ability to perform certain tests such as wheelchair sprint, stopping, obstacle dribbling, holding the ball, etc. The classification system for wheelchair basketball, which has been established by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF), with five classification points (1-4.5), differs than U.S.A. applied system, which classifies the players in a three points scale (1-3). The main purpose of the studies so far, is to evaluate the athletes with different classification, and to investigate methods to improve their technical skills.

Brasile (4) demonstrated the performance of wheelchair basketball players which were classified according to the U.S.A. applied system (Classification I, II and III). Participants were evaluated in the following skill tests: (a) obstacle dribble, (b) free-throws, (c) dribbling and shooting the ball, and (d) pass for accuracy. The results showed that: (a) the classification II and III athletes demonstrated higher performance than the others, and (b) classification II athletes demonstrated highest performance.

Moreover, Vanlerberghe and Slock (14) evaluated 30 wheelchair athletes which were classified in the 3 points scale (I, II, III) and they applied: (a) two tests for shooting accuracy (shot under the basket and rebound; obstacle dribble, shot and rebound), (b) two tests for ball-handling (obstacle dribble and dribble around wheelchairs), and (c) two tests for passing ability (speed pass and long pass).

Results revealed significant differences between athletes with different physical disabilities. Athletes of III classification revealed the highest performance, while athletes of I classification revealed the lowest. However, researchers have argued that these specific skill tests can hardly be a reliable method for the evaluation of the wheelchair basketball players.

Also, Brasile (5) divided a sample of 79 wheelchair basketball athletes into three groups, according to their classification in order to evaluated their technical ability in six skill tests: (a) obstacle dribble, (b) 1 minute free throws using the strong hand, (c) 1 minute free throws using the weak hand, (d) pass for accuracy using the strong hand, (e) pass for accuracy using the weak hand and (f) 20m speed run. The skill tests’ results revealed that, athletes of II and III classification referred similar performance between them, but both of them higher than the athletes of I classification. These findings led the researcher to the conclusion that skill tests’ results are influenced by both of the training time and the previous experience in basketball.

Similar results were referred in a recent study by Ergun, Duzgun and Aslan (9), which evaluated 32 wheelchair basketball players. Subjects with low disability lagged behind in lay ups test, in 20m speed run, in shooting around the basket, as well as in obstacle dribble. Additionally, there were detected significant differences between athletes of different coaching experience to the tests of 20m speed run, obstacle dribble and passing for accuracy. Moreover, “age” may be an important factor that affects the performance of the athletes in wheelchair basketball.

Brasile (6) applied six field tests to evaluate twelve male and twelve female wheelchair basketball athletes in the following tests: (a) obstacle dribble, (b) free throws, (c) rebound and shot with the strong hand, (d) rebound and shot with the weak hand, (e) pass for accuracy with the strong hand and (f) pass for accuracy with the weak hand. Within the female group were revealed significant differences in tests requiring capability and discipline (rebounding and shooting the ball, obstacle dribble). In contrast, male athletes revealed improved performance in tests requiring higher power level and especially to those that were related with distance (passing for accuracy and free throws).

Finally, Molik et al. (13) evaluated 109 Poles and Lithuanian wheelchair basketball players in six skill tests. The results of the study revealed that athletes with low classification demonstrated lower performance, compared to athletes with a high classification degree. Particularly, no significant differences were detected between athletes of 1 and 2 classification degree. Reversely there were detected significant differences between athletes of 3 and 4.5 classification degree.

As is evident from reviewing the literature, the topic of wheelchair athletes’ skills is incomplete, and more incomplete regarding the high level athletes. The purpose of the present study is (a) to document the performance of elite basketball players’ in the technical skills, (b) to compare their performance in relation to their classification degree, and (c) to compared and discuss their performance with previous studies.

### Methods

#### Participants

Fourteen (N=14) wheelchair basketball athletes aged 30.1±6.6, all of them members of the national team, volunteered to participate in the present study (See Table 1). The types of their disability were the following: (a) one athlete with incomplete quadriplegia (injury on 6th and 7th cervical), (b) seven athletes with paraplegia (injury on 7th cervical to 12th thoracic), (c) one athlete with poliomyelitis and (d) six amputated athletes. They were divided in two groups of 7 athletes, according to their classification. The first group (n1=7) consisted from athletes of 1-2.5 and the second (n2=7) of 3-4.5 classification degree.

#### Skill tests

The six skill tests which assign the technical characteristics of the wheelchair basketball players and were applied in the present study are the following:

*20m speed run:* Subject takes a position behind the baseline and on the signal starts covering a 20m distance as fast as possible. In a two-minute period the subject had two attempts and the best is recorded (See Figure 1).

*Free throws:* Subject shoots 40 free throws in a series of 20 at a time. A 2-minutes rest inserted between the trials. One point was given for each basket made (See Figure 2).

*Obstacle dribble:* Subject starts on the signal at the tight side of the first obstacle and maneuvers through the course as fast as possible, pushing the wheelchair and dribbling the ball, accordingly the U.S.A. NWBA rules. The test is repeated without rest for one more time. Each dribbling violation adds 5 seconds to the trial time and each time the subject, ball, or wheelchair touch an obstacle, one second added to the trial time. One test trial was given to the subjects, for the familiarization with the test (See Figure 3).

*Lay-up:* Two cones are positioned on the 3-point line, perpendicular to the intersection, of the side lines of the free throw lane and the baseline. The subject takes position out of the 3-point line and starts with the signal to make as many lay-ups as possible within two minutes. After each attempt, he takes his own rebound, dribbles the ball around the opposite cone, preparing for the next lay up. The score was the total amount of the attempts, plus the total number of the successful lay ups (See Figure 4).

*Pass for distance:* The subject places the wheelchair so that the front wheels are behind the base line. Using the chest pass, he tries to pass the ball as far as possible. Subject was performed six attempts and the total of the measured distance was recorded (See Figure 5).

*Pass for accuracy:* The target in the specific test are three concentric rectangles of different sizes (50.8cm X 25.4cm, 101.6cm X 63.5cm and 152.4cm X 101.6cm), drown to smooth wall. The base of the larger rectangle is 60.96cm from the ground and the passing line is 10m (for 2-4.5 classification) or 7.5m (for 1 and 1.5 classification) from the wall. Subjects at the signal take position behind the line and perform 10 passes towards the wall any way the wish (i.e., chest pass, overhead, baseball), but discount any passes where the ball bounces first. If the ball hits the line or inside the smallest rectangle, subjects received 3 points which was the highest score. Two points received for the middle and one for the outer rectangle. Subjects should receive three warm up tosses from their distance and finally, only one trial of ten passes was allowed (See Figure 6).

#### Statistical analysis

Six separate (one for each skill test) independent samples t-tests were conducted to detect possible differences between the groups, and for all the carried skill tests. Significance level was set at p<0.05.

#### Classification

It is very possible, wheelchair basketball athletes because of their differences in disability degree, mobility, physical condition and training experience, to perform the technical skills by a completely different way. The skill’s performance was evaluated during games, from specialized observers called “classificators.” A basketball team comprehends athletes with high disability degree such as spinal cord injuries (e.g., quadriplegia), as well as athletes with low disability degree (e.g., amputation, other disabilities). The athletes are classified from 1 to 4.5, accordingly their basketball skills performance. The high classification degree corresponds to athletes with high functional capacity (therefore lower level of disability). The aim of this classification method is the compulsory participation of all the disable athletes in the games. These regulations have been applied since the early 1940’s, years of the game’s establishment. The first classification methods were based on the athletes’ anatomical characteristics, rather than their functional, so the athletes were classified with base their disability and not on their performance in games. Since 1984 a new classification system is in operation which primarily classified the athletes in four degrees (1, 2, 3, 4). Later, some changes were demonstrated, but the most important was the addition of the half degrees (1.5 – 2.5 – 3.5 – 4.5). The U.S.A National Wheelchair Basketball Association (N.W.B.A.) has established a different classification system, which is consistent by three degrees (1 – 2 – 3). So, the athletes are classified and the total of the in-bounce players’ degree must not exceed a specific number. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation decided for the international games and tournaments, the limit total degree for the in-bounce players to be the 14. For the national and local championships, the Federations allow the participant teams to come in the games with more limit degrees (e.g., 14.5 or 15).

### Results

Table 2 presents the athletes’ classification and their performance in all the technical skills.

The results of the t-test process are presented in table 3. Significant differences detected only for the obstacle dribble test.

### Discussion

This study examined the performance of a sample of high level wheelchair athletes in basketball skills. It was well-documented that athletes with low classification degree, demonstrated lower performance than those with high classification, but not statistically significant. However, significant differences were presented only to the obstacle dribble test. These results are in accordance with previous studies of considerable researchers (7-8, 14). It is discussed below the results regarding the skill tests separately.

#### 20m speed run

For wheelchair basketball the speed ability holds an important role. Specifically, after adjusting the 24¨ regulation, the individual and team speed, became imperative. Brasile (4-5) referred differences in speed run, between the athletes of 2-3 and 1 classification degree, while Ergun et al (9) referred that training experience affects the speed run ability. Contrary to these researches, no significant differences were detected between the two groups in the present study but, on the one hand Brasile (3-8) used different classification method and on the other hand Ergun (9) detected differences only between the athletes of various experience.

Free throws

Although significant differences were not detected between the groups in this test, it is obvious that small differences, appears to be between the groups (20.7 vs 18.4). The results are in accordance with resent literature however, a point of attention regarding free throw shooting performance is the different technique between the players (10, 12), the different type of the wheelchair, their age and the training level before the injury (5), as well as after it (9).

#### Obstacle dribble

Regarding the obstacle dribble, significant differences were observed between the groups in the present study (55.5sec vs 47.1sec, p<0.001). These results are in accordance with literature, while in both of the studies (8-9, 14) which investigated obstacle dribble, were detected significant differences between the athletes with different classification level. Obviously, in this test, many repeated changes of direction in conjunction with controlling the ball, requiring full activation of the abdominal muscles. In these muscle groups, the difference between athletes of varying classification level, is obvious and has an important role in performance, especially in tests involving abrupt changes of direction. An important finding regarding the obstacle dribble test is the difference between Greek and U.S.A. wheelchair athletes. Vanlerberghe and Slock (14), referred values of 47.1 and 43 sec accordingly for low and high classification athletes.

These differences in performance among the Greek and U.S.A. wheelchair athletes, can be justified by the low level of Greek wheelchair basketball and the fact that their involvement in the sport is more leisure, as well as they do not train more than three times a week during the season. On the other hand, basketball in the U.S.A. is highly developed and the national team is among the top teams in the world while the Greek wheelchair basketball national team, is classified in division III of Europe.

#### Lay ups

Contrary to Ergun et al. (9) results, in this study were not detected significant differences between the groups. Specifically, the low classification athletes referred 9.1±2.3 purposeful efforts, while the high classification athletes 11.1±2.2. Although there is a lack of significance, the difference between the groups (9.1 vs 11.1) highlights a strong trend of the high classification athletes, to perform better scores in the specific test.

#### Pass for accuracy

Significant differences between these groups were not observed. However, it has to be noticed that in this test, the low classification athletes were performed their efforts closer to the target, compared to their co-participants with high classification level, which may have influenced the results. It seems that there is need for further investigation, to explore a better method, for assessing the passing test for accuracy.

#### Pass for distance

No significant differences were detected between the groups (12.1 vs 10.5). These results are in accordance with Vanlerberghe and Slock (14), they are reasonable and explained by the fact that the upper body of the athletes is not damaged, so they don’t lack of power and they can throw the basketball away.

### Conclusions

This study investigated the technical characteristics of elite basketball players with disabilities. Overall, although significant differences were not revealed between high and low classification athletes, the trend indicates that athletes with high classification degree are better on tests requiring physical abilities, while those with low classification degree performed better on tests requiring skills and concentration. It is also important to take into consideration the fact that the Greek athletes with disabilities do not train regularly and intensively and had no training experience before the injury. Future research should focus on planning and application of training programs, in order to ascertain the influence of organized and intensive training to the improvement of their physical and technical skills.

### Application In Sports
The organized and intensive training in athletes with disabilities is efficient and it is very important for their performance, from time to time to be evaluated through valid and reliable tests. The frequent applications of test functions as motive for the athletes, so they are more concentrated, energetic, and effective during practice.

### Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the wheelchair basketball players, participating in this study, for their maximum efforts to achieve the best performance. Their contribution made this research possible.

### Tables

#### Table 1
Anthropometric characteristics of Greek elite wheelchair basketball players

N	Disability	Class	Age	Weight (kg)	High (cm)
1	PARA	1.0	29	65	180
2	TETRA	1.0	25	74	177
3	PARA	1.0	30	75.5	180
4	PARA	1.5	23	120	188
5	PARA	1.5	29	67.5	189
6	PARA	2.0	39	85	180
7	PARA	2.0	22	62.8	170
8	PARA	3.0	30	64	178
9	POLIO	3.0	40	74.4	170
10	AMP	4.0	43	96.6	180
11	AMP	4.5	31	78	180
12	AMP	4.5	28	61	180
13	AMP	4.5	22	87.4	188
14	AMP	4.5	31	113.2	200
M			30.1	80	181.4
SD			6.6	18.5	7.8

#### Table 2
Technical characteristics of Greek elite wheelchair basketball players

N	Classification	Lay up	Free throws	Long pass	Pass for accuracy	20m sprint	Obstacle dribble
1	1	11	19	25	10.5	5.8	55.4
2	1	9	18	19	10.4	5.7	57.4
3	1	6	23	15	10.4	6.1	55.3
4	1	6	13	20	9	6.3	58.9
5	1.5	10	26	21	8.7	7.0	56
6	2	12	27	11	13.6	5.7	56.8
7	2	10	19	17	12	5.1	49
M		9.14	20.71	18.28	10.66	5.96	55.54
SD		2.34	4.92	4.50	1.69	0.59	3.15
8	3	8	15	13	12.4	5.2	47.1
9	3	14	22	17	9.3	5.7	48.9
10	4	13	19	17	8.9	6.0	50.7
11	4.5	12	24	12	13.8	5.2	44.4
12	4.5	10	19	19	12.9	5.2	43.1
13	4.5	12	20	16	15.2	6.0	51
14	4.5	9	10	11	12.1	5.7	44.8
M		11.14	18.43	15	12.09	5.57	47.14
SD		2.19	4.65	3	2.28	0.37	3.16

#### Table 3
t-test results for the six skill tests within the group

test	t	p
Lay up	-1.65	0.12
Free throws	0.89	0.39
Long pass	1.61	0.13
Pass for accuracy	-1.32	0.21
Sprint	1.46	0.17
Obstacle dribble	4.98	0.0003

### Figures

#### Figure 1
20m speed run
![Figure 1](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/462/figure-1.png “20m speed run”)

#### Figure 2
Free throws. 2 series of 20 shot
![Figure 2](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/462/figure-2.png “Free throws. 2 series of 20 shot”)

#### Figure 3
Obstacle dribble
![Figure 3](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/462/figure-3.png “Obstacle dribble”)

#### Figure 4
Lay-ups (2 min)
![Figure 4](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/462/figure-4.png “Lay-ups (2 min)”)

#### Figure 5
Long pass (6 trials)
![Figure 5](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/462/figure-5.png “Long pass (6 trials)”)

#### Figure 6
Pass for accuracy (10 trials)
![Figure 6](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/462/figure-6.png “Pass for accuracy (10 trials)”)

### References

1. American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) (1984). Basketball for boys and girls: skill test manual. VA Reston.
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### Corresponding Author

N. Apostolidis, Phd
National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Physical Education & Sport Science
Daphne – Athens, 17237 Greece
<napost@phed.uoa.gr>
+302107276085

Dr. E. Zacharakis is Lecturer to the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science of the Athens University. He is teaching Basketball techniques and tactics (Undergraduate). He was head coach of the Greek wheelchair basketball team, participated to the Olympic Games in Athens 2004. His research interest is focused on wheelchair basketball, concerning the technical and physiological characteristics.

U.S. Sports Academy2013-11-22T22:50:16-06:00April 9th, 2012|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Work-Family Conflict and Related Theories in NCAA Division II Sports Information Professionals

Laura M. Hatfield, Ph.D. and Jeffrey T. Johnson, Ph.D.

### Abstract

Work-family conflict (WFC) is defined as “the discord that arises when the time devoted to or time spent fulfilling professional responsibilities interferes with or limits the amount of time available to perform family-related responsibilities” (20, 21). A successful career in sports information requires long, demanding hours which can make finding balance between work and family difficult. Sports information professionals (SIDs) participate in public relations activities designed to promote the teams they represent (19, 26). Responding to increasing interest in college sports, the demand for information about collegiate athletic departments has increased (13). In order to meet this demand for information, SIDs are responsible for producing content for electronic and print media on a regular and timely basis. The work done by sports information professionals has been characterized as 24 hours a day, 7 days a week work (11). Therefore, balancing work and home life has become a topic of increasing interest for those working in this field.

The purpose of this study was to determine if work-family conflict exists in NCAA Division II SIDs and to examine the impact of WFC on the related theories of life satisfaction (LS), job satisfaction (JS), job burnout (JB), and career commitment (CC). E-mails containing a link to the online survey were sent to the highest ranking sports information professional in each NCAA Division II institution. Informed consent was obtained prior to obtaining access to the survey. The survey contained Likert scale items for WFC, LS, JS, JB, and CC, demographic information, and open ended items relating to positive aspects and challenging aspects in performing the duties of a sports information professional. Of the 273 individuals contacted, 98 (36%) completed the survey. Results indicated these professionals do suffer from work-family conflict as 84% reported high levels of conflict, while only 8% reported low levels of conflict. Examination of the other scales revealed that these professionals are fairly satisfied with life and job factors, but some do experience from a fair degree of job burnout. Further analysis revealed that those with more children in the home had greater WFC. Finally, correlation and regression analyses revealed significant statistical relationships between each scale and indicated that WFC could successfully predict variations in LS, JS, JB, and CC.

**Key Words:** sports information, media relations, work family conflict

### Introduction

Work-family conflict (WFC) is defined as “the discord that arises when the time devoted to or time spent fulfilling professional responsibilities interferes with or limits the amount of time available to perform family-related responsibilities” (20, 21). This type of conflict appears when the demands of one’s professional life interfere with the demands of one’s personal life. Stated another way “participation in the work role/family role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family role/work role” (16). WFC has been studied extensively in the corporate environment (2, 9). This is a growing line of inquiry in the sport context and has received visible support from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). For example, the NCAA has created a work-life task force to address these issues (10) and the topic has been prominent at [NCAA National Conventions](http://www.ncaa.org) beginning in 2008. Results from a recent study found that NCAA Division I sports information professionals do experience high levels of work-family conflict (14).

Sports information professionals (SIDs) participate in public relations activities designed to promote the teams they represent (19, 26). Responding to increasing interest in college sports, the demand for information about intercollegiate athletic departments has increased (13). In order to meet this demand for information, SIDs are responsible for producing content for electronic and print media on a regular and timely basis. They develop a wide range of publications and new media, compile and manage statistics, meet the needs of the media, manage budgets, organize events, and supervise personnel all while maintaining their composure in highly stressful situations (12, 26). SIDs report feeling overwhelmed with the increasing demands of desktop publishing and electronic media (16). A successful career in sports information requires long, demanding hours which can make finding balance between work and family difficult. Therefore, balancing work life and home life has become a topic of increasing interest for those working in this field, including SIDs at the NCAA Division II level.

In an attempt to define, brand, and uniquely position NCAA Division II, the NCAA launched a strategic initiative that incorporates a hexagon of principles (learning, balance, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, passion, and service) to clearly define and uniquely position [Division II](http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/82af4f004e0daa1e9b7ffb1ad6fc8b25/SPPlatformInColor.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=82af4f004e0daa1e9b7ffb1ad6fc8b25 ). In addition, the Division II presidents have established the first phase in a two phase process designed to promote more balance between work and life for coaches and student-athletes. The “Life in the Balance” principle reduces contest dates in 10 sports thus streamlining the seasons and includes a provision for a seven-day break from practice and competition for basketball. These actions are designed to provide time off for [players and team staffs](http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/academics/division+ii/life+in+the+balance). It is reasonable to infer that this increased focus on a balanced life, including the streamlining of seasons and reduction in contests, would promote more opportunity for work-life balance for athletic department members, including sports information professionals.

The NCAA Division II strategic positioning initiative is designed to establish a way of life on the Division II campus as uniquely different from the way of life on campuses at other institutional classifications. Several studies exist that examine the job characteristics for athletic directors at the various institutional classifications. Previous research indicates that there are very few differences among the characteristics of the organizations and the styles of administration in NCAA (all levels) and NAIA athletic departments (25). Further, Copeland and Kirsch (4) found no significant differences in job stress for NCAA athletic directors regardless of institutional classification (Division I, Division II, or Division III). Additionally, these athletic directors reported that they almost always experienced some level of job related stress (4). Given the similar organizational characteristics and administrative styles, including the similarly stressful nature of the role of the athletic director in intercollegiate athletics, it is reasonable to infer that those with other roles within athletic departments at various institutional classifications might experience similar challenges to their colleagues across divisions. In fact, the stresses faced by SIDs in NCAA Division I might also be faced by those in NCAA Division II institutions. Hatfield & Johnson (14) reported that a majority of the NCAA Division I SID participants experienced work-family conflict.

Studies examining work-family conflict in sport have focused primarily on athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, and administrators at the NCAA Division I level (6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, and 24). Male and female coaches have experienced work-family conflict (24). Work-family conflict has been closely examined in NCAA Division I athletic trainers (17, 18). Results from these studies indentified long hours, required travel, overlapping responsibilities, drive to succeed, and commitment to the profession as qualities that contribute to the challenges sport professionals face in managing work-family conflict (6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 22, 24). SIDs are another group of athletic department staff members who work in similarly demanding positions. In a study examining work-family conflict and related theories in sports information professionals, Hatfield & Johnson (14) found that 86% of participating SIDs reported experiencing work-family conflict. These professionals identified “balancing work and family life, especially on the weekends;” “balancing work/family life and prioritizing the things that must get done and putting others aside to spend time with family;” “meeting all the job demands with a small staff and meeting the demands at home as a husband and father of two young children;” and “balancing travel/events with family…more is always added, nothing is ever taken away” as some of their greatest challenges in performing their job duties (14).

Work-family conflict does not exist in isolation. Work-family conflict has been negatively related to life satisfaction and job satisfaction in athletic trainers and sports information professionals (14, 18). Work-family conflict has been positively correlated with job burnout and intent to leave the profession (14, 20). Work schedules that require long hours with little flexibility have been tied to job dissatisfaction and burnout in athletic department employees (14, 17). Further, in so much as time is a limited resource, time spent on one activity, work, is time not spent on another activity, family. Therefore, attempts to balance work and family while managing other, related constructs as experienced by SIDs warrants formal examination. The purpose of this study was to determine if work-family conflict exists in NCAA Division II sports information professionals and to examine the impact of work-family conflict on the related theories of life satisfaction (LS), job satisfaction (JS), job burnout (JB), and career commitment (CC).

### Methods

#### Participants

Sports information professionals in each of the 273 NCAA Division II member institutions were invited to participate, and 98 SIDs completed surveys. Participants in this study were the highest ranking sports information professionals in their respective NCAA Division II athletic departments. Titles for these professionals might include, but are not limited to, any of the following: sports information director, assistant athletic director for media relations, or associate athletic director for sport communications.

#### Procedures

There are 273 NCAA Division II institutions listed on the [NCAA portal](http://www.ncaa.org). The portal was used to provide access to the website for each Division II institution. Once on the website, the highest ranking communications professional in the athletic department was identified and an email inviting that individual to participate in the study was sent. A link to the survey was provided in the email. Informed consent was obtained prior to obtaining access to the survey. Following the initial invitation to participate, two additional reminders were sent. The survey was open for six weeks.

#### Instrumentation

An online survey was assembled to include five scales that had previously been tested for validity and reliability (12) and included a section for demographic information and open ended items to address the positive aspects and challenging aspects in performing the duties of a sports information professional. The following five scales were used:

*Work-Family Conflict.* Work-family conflict was assessed using the 5-item Netemeyer et al. (20) scale that included a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = *strongly disagree* or *low work-family conflict* to 7 = *strongly agree* or *high work-family conflict*) for responses.

*Life Satisfaction.* Life satisfaction was assessed using the 5-item Diener (5) Satisfaction with Life Scale that included a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = *strongly agree* or *high life satisfaction* to 7 = *strongly disagree* or *low life satisfaction*) for responses.

*Job Satisfaction.* Job satisfaction was assessed using the 6-item Agho, Price & Mueller (1) scale that included a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = *strongly agree* or *low job satisfaction* to 5 = *strongly disagree* or *high job satisfaction*) for responses.

*Job Burnout.* Job burnout was assessed using the 21-item Pines & Aronson (23) Burnout Measure that included a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = *never* or *low job burnout* to 7 = *always* or *high job burnout*) for responses.

*Career Commitment.* Career commitment was assessed using the 7-item Blau (3) scale that included a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = *strongly agree* or *high career commitment* to 5 = *strongly disagree* or *low career commitment*) for responses.

#### Data Analysis

The quantitative data was calculated using SPSS version 16. Demographic data was collected for gender, age, EEOC status, educational background, number of children under the age of 18 living in the household, and number of years in the field. Each scale was totaled and percentages for the “agree” (agree, somewhat agree, strongly agree), “neutral”, and “disagree” (disagree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree) responses were calculated for each scale. Cross-tabulations between demographic categories and the WFC scale were run to determine if any of these factors had an impact on WFC. Finally, correlation and regression analysis was run to examine the relationships between the scales and to determine the predictive ability of WFC on each of the other scales. Qualitative data from the open ended items were utilized to support the results from the quantitative analyses.

### Results & Discussion

Of the 273 Division II sports information professionals contacted, 98 responded to the survey, for a response rate of 36%. Within the group of respondents, 85% were male (n = 83) and 11 % were female (n = 11). Four individuals (4%) chose not to include their gender. With regard to family status, 32% were single (n = 31), 61% were married (n = 60), 1% was widowed (n = 1), 1% was divorced (n = 1), 1% was in a domestic partnership (n = 1), and 4% (n = 4) did not indicate a family status. Eighty six percent of the sample was Caucasian (n = 84), five percent were African American (n = 5), one percent was Hispanic (n = 1), two percent were of mixed heritage (n = 2), and six percent did not respond to EEOC status (n = 6). Most of the respondents were sports information directors (70%, n = 69), with a few indicating they were assistant or associate athletic directors (27%, n = 25). Four of the participants did not indicate a title (n = 4).

The results clearly show that Division II sports information professionals (SIDs) do experience levels of work-family conflict. Eighty four percent of the participants responded that they had high levels of work-family conflict while only eight percent indicated they did not feel their work conflicted with their personal lives. Responses from open-ended questions also support this finding including: “having to work seven days a week and having very little family time;” “trying to manage family time with work demands. More games are moving to weekends to avoid missed class time, but it doesn’t help staff members;” and “keeping an equal life-work balance through the entire year, not just in the summer months when there are no sports.”

With regard to the life satisfaction scale, 59% of the respondents indicated that they were happy with their current life situation, 28% indicated that they were not happy with their current life situation and another 13% responded neutral with regard to this set of questions. Even though over half of the participants did report that they are happy with their current life situation, the researchers were expecting this number to be higher as anecdotal evidence indicated that although these types of sport professionals do work long, demanding hours, the great percentage seemed to be happy with their lives. Therefore, the fact that almost 30% reported being somewhat unhappy further indicates there may be some work-life balance issues with this population. One respondent suggested that being “able to work flexible hours outside of events. Telecommute when possible. Go into the office after the kids are in bed” was a positive aspect of the job. Other responses included: “…involving my family in my work so I can accomplish my duties and spend time with family at the same time” and “nothing less than 100% is enough…my drive keeps me going and my family is heavily involved in the school in which I work which is good and bad.” These statements reinforce the crossover between these job and life characteristics.

Results related to the job satisfaction scale indicated that overall these professionals are satisfied with their present situation, as 80% responded that they were satisfied with their current jobs, while only nine percent reported being dissatisfied. This certainly indicates that while there are issues in this profession, the gross majority are pleased with their careers at this point in their professional lives. Respondents indicated that interacting with student-athletes and coaches, being a fan of one team, and the game-day atmosphere were positive aspects of their jobs.

Fifty five percent of the participants did not indicate high levels job burnout while 43% did indicate some level of burnout on a fairly frequent basis, according to results from the job burnout scale. Again, even though the majority of the participants do not report experiencing high levels of burnout, the fact that 43% do suffer from some level of burnout is an important finding and one indication that these individuals may experience more burnout as they progress through their professional careers as most of the participants were less than ten years into the profession. Some respondents provided work place examples related to burnout including the following: “Balancing what I physically, mentally and emotionally CAN do with what I WANT to do;” “too much work, not enough pay;” “no full-time help;” “limited staff (just me) covering 16 sports;” and “the ever changing and growing list of responsibilities.”

Results from the career commitment scale were interesting as 56% indicated that they were happy with their careers, while 41% had some level of uncertainty. This, again, further illustrates that most of these professionals do enjoy what they do although some may choose a different focus if they could “do it over again.” Positive comments related to career commitment included: “I love daily interaction with student-athletes, nothing beats the atmosphere of a college campus and the chance to make a difference in the lives of student-athletes” and “ability to develop working relationships with players and coaches. Ability to call the program ‘my own.’ Opportunity to tailor my work to the needs of my media market.” Others provided comments identifying challenges to their career commitment: “dealing with unrealistic objectives from superiors who have not the first clue what this job entails;” “I’m a one-man show. I currently do not have any full-time assistant[s] so I must complete all tasks;” and “managing expectations of administration in face of new technologies.”

To further disaggregate the data, cross-tabulations were run to determine if the responses on the work family scale were different based on gender, EEOC status, years of experience in the field, and number of children under age 18 in the home. When compared on gender, 100% of the female respondents indicated they did feel at least some degree of work-family conflict (see Table 1 for complete results). Results related to males showed 92.8% had some level of work-family conflict, while 1.2% was neutral and 6% indicated there was little or no work-family conflict. Comparison on EEOC status revealed similar results across the different categories as most felt a fair degree of work-family conflict and very few responses indicated little or no conflict (see Table 2 for complete results).

Data for years of experience as it relates to work-family conflict also showed very few differences across categories. Ninety three percent of those with ten or less years of experience indicated at least some level of conflict, compared to 96% of those with 11-20 years of experience, and 92% of those with over 20 years of experience (see Table 3 for complete results).

The most significant results of the cross-tabulations were associated with the number of children under the age of 18 in the home (see Table 4 for complete results). First, it was interesting to note that approximately 55% of the participants in the study reported having no children under the age of 18 living in the household. There could be several explanations for this result. Since many of these individuals are less than ten years into their careers they may not be at a point in their life where they want to start a family, but it may also indicate that their work schedules are interfering with the ability to start a family. Data from the cross-tabulation definitely showed differences based on the number children under age 18 in the household. Greater numbers of children in the household was associated with greater work-family conflict. Of those with three or more children, none indicated they were neutral or had little or no conflict, while 10.3% of those with two or less children under the age of 18 reported neutral or low rates of conflict.

Correlations were run to examine the degree of relationship between each of the scales. The correlations show significant relationships between each of the scales utilized in the study (see Table 5). Approximately half of the correlations were moderate (0.4 to 0.7) while the other half were low (0.2 to 0.4) but still all correlations were statistically significant at the 0.05 alpha level. These data clearly show there is a relationship between work-family conflict and each of the other scales, as well as, each of the other scales with each other.

After determining there were significant correlations between the scales, regression analyses were run between the work-family scale and each of the other scales to determine if work-family conflict could successfully predict the variations in the scores on the other scales (see Table 6 for complete results). The work-family conflict scale was able to predict each of the other scales effectively, indicating that work-family conflict is significantly related to life satisfaction, job burnout, career commitment, and job satisfaction for this group of Division II sports information professionals. Although work-family conflict was able to predict each of the other scales, the regression between work-family conflict and job burnout was substantially higher than the others, which indicates those experiencing from work-family conflict also seem to be experiencing a fair degree of job burnout.

The results of this study compare remarkably with a previous study by these authors investigating the same research questions with Division I sports information professionals (14). Eighty six percent of Division I SIDs reported having work-family conflict which compares favorably to the 84% reported in this study. All of the other scales had very similar results as well, certainly indicating that the stresses faced and the impact of these stressors on the lives of sports information professionals is very similar from Division I to Division II. The Division II SIDs did report slightly higher job burnout than their Division I counterparts (43% to 41%) which could be related to less staff and help, and additional responsibilities that may include coaching, other administrative responsibilities, etc., at the Division II level. The results from the correlation and regression data also mirrored the results from the Division I study.

### Conclusions

With increased coverage of Division II athletic events comes increased work for those providing information and promoting the athletes and teams to media outlets, fans, and other interested parties. As this demand for information increases, the potential for work-family conflict and related issues could certainly increase as well. The purpose of this study was to determine if work-family conflict exists in Division II SIDs, and if so, what is the relationship between work family conflict and life satisfaction, job satisfaction, career commitment, and job burnout? It is clear that Division II sports information professionals do experience work-family conflict, much like their Division I colleagues, and there is a significant relationship between these concepts. The correlation and regression analyses clearly show that work-family conflict can predict variations on each of the other scales. It is important for those in administrative positions to understand the demands on the SIDs and try to provide ways to reduce the impact of work-family conflict as it certainly could have potential negative results for the professionals.

### Application To Sport

Since SIDs serve as a liaison between collegiate athletic departments and media outlets, fans, and other interested parties, work-family conflict and job burnout could lead to increased stress among these professionals and could impact all entities associated with these athletic departments, including the athletes, other athletic administrators, and the university as a whole. This study has clearly demonstrated that these professionals do suffer from work-family conflict, and that WFC is related to increased job burnout and decreased life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and career commitment. Therefore, it is certainly plausible that this could lead to increased stress and negative impacts, therefore, it is important for athletic administrators to address this issue with their employees and try to find ways to decrease this conflict.

### Tables

#### Table 1
Cross-tabulation of work-family conflict by gender

	Gender
Response	Male	Female
Strongly Disagree	0	0
Disagree	0	0
Somewhat Disagree	6.0	0
Neutral	1.2	0
Somewhat Agree	19.3	36.4
Agree	34.9	36.4
Strongly Agree	38.6	27.2

#### Table 2
Cross-tabulation of work-family conflict by EEOC

	EEOC
Response	Caucasian	African-American	Hispanic	Mixed Heritage
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0	0
Disagree	0	0	0	0
Somewhat Disagree	3.6	20	0	0
Neutral	1.2	0	0	0
Somewhat Agree	23.8	0	0	0
Agree	35.7	20	100	50
Strongly Agree	35.7	60	0	50

#### Table 3
Cross-tabulation of work-family conflict by years of experience

	Years of Experience
Response	0-10 years	11-20 years	21-30 years	31+ years
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0	0
Disagree	0	0	0	0
Somewhat Disagree	5.4	4	8.3	0
Neutral	1.8	0	0	0
Somewhat Agree	21.4	24	16.7	0
Agree	32.1	40	41.7	0
Strongly Agree	39.3	32	33.3	100

#### Table 4
Cross-tabulation of work-family conflict by number of children under age 18 in the home

	Number of children under 18 in home
Response	0	1	2	3	4+
Strongly Disagree	0	0	0	0	0
Disagree	0	0	0	0	0
Somewhat Disagree	1.9	6.7	13.6	0	0
Neutral	3.8	0	0	0	0
Somewhat Agree	30.2	6.7	18.2	20	0
Agree	24.5	40	50	40	50
Strongly Agree	39.6	46.7	18.2	40	50

#### Table 5
Correlations (actual correlation coefficients) between subscales

Scales	Work-family Conflict (WFC)	Life Satisfaction (LS)	Job Satisfaction (JS)	Job Burnout (JB)	Career Commitment (CC)
WFC		0.3962*	0.292*	0.485*	0.395*
LS	0.362*		0.418*	0.680*	0.471*
JS	0.292*	0.418*		0.405*	0.664*
JB	0.485*	0.680*	0.405*		0.315*
CC	0.395*	0.471*	0.664*	0.315*

* p < .05

#### Table 6
Regressions between WFC and each scale

Regression	R squared	F ratio	P value
Work-family Conflict vs. Life Satisfaction	0.131	14.327	0.000
Work-family Conflict vs. Job Satisfaction	0.085	8.867	0.004
Work-family Conflict vs. Job Burnout	0.235	28.233	0.000
Work-family Conflict vs. Career Commitment	0.156	17.214	0.000

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### Corresponding Author

Laura M. Hatfield, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA 30118-1100
<lhatfiel@westga.edu>
678.839.6191

### Author Biographies

#### Laura M. Hatfield

Laura M. Hatfield (Ph.D., University of Southern Mississippi) is an assistant professor of sport management in the Department of Leadership and Applied Instruction at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA. She teaches undergraduate courses organizational theory, organizational behavior, and communications. Her research interests include work-family conflict, organizational communication, and the scholarship of teaching.

#### Jeffrey T. Johnson

Jeffrey T. Johnson (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor of sports science in the Department of Leadership and Applied Instruction at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, and exercise physiology. His research interests include pathological walking and running, sport mechanics, and work-family conflict.

U.S. Sports Academy2013-11-22T22:50:34-06:00April 9th, 2012|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Dietary Habits of African Canadian Women: A Sampled Survey

Sherldine Tomlinson, M.Sc.; Jordan R. Moon, PhD

### Abstract

The countless health benefits of adopting healthy eating habits have been well documented. It is troubling then that studies examining dietary behaviors among minority women find that compared with European American women, African American women practice poorer dietary habits. Given this reality, and the knowledge that poor nutrition is a contributing risk factor for chronic, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, better understandings of minority women and their relationships with food are needed. This study aimed to contribute to this effort by surveying African Canadian women to explore both their eating habits and their perceptions of nutrition. Participants in this study were Canadian women of African ancestry who were 25 years old or older. Fifty of these women chose to participate and did so by completing a brief written survey and answering one open-ended question. Survey results revealed that the respondents rated their present eating habits as “excellent” (6%), “very good” (36%), “good” (40%), or “fair” (17%). Top dietary changes made by participants included reducing salt, fat and/or sugar intake, and/or increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. The open-ended question asked what supports could be put in place to encourage healthy eating and many of the respondents noted that nutritional classes/workshops for black women that could be offered through the community or the church would be beneficial. This study suggests increased efforts are required to further educate African Canadian women about healthy eating as poor nutrition is a significant risk factor for many of the diseases prevalent in black communities. It is imperative that any initiated nutritional education programmes be tailored to meet the cultural and linguistic background of the targeted group in question. Further research is warranted to expand our understandings of African Canadian women’s eating habits and how their food choices affect their overall health.

**Key Words:** minority women, nutrition, health status, diet-related illnesses

### Introduction

Many health professionals agree that the most significant and controllable risk factor affecting long-term health and well-being is diet. Indeed, the first steps commonly suggested for improving health and longevity are lifestyle changes like lowering salt intake, reducing total fat/saturated fat in our diets, increasing fibre intake and fruit and vegetable consumption, and integrating regular exercise into our daily routine. Without a doubt, there are countless benefits to adopting healthy eating habits. It is troubling then that studies in the United States examining dietary behaviors among minority women find that compared with European American women, African American women practice poorer dietary habits. In a number of recent studies for example, African American women were shown to consume less fruits and vegetables, and to eat more foods that were high in sodium and/or fat (1-3). The American Heart Association’s 2009 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update (4) reported that on average, only three to five percent of adult African Americans consumed the recommended three or more daily servings of whole grains, only six to nine percent consumed four or more daily servings of fruit and only five to ten percent consumed five or more daily servings of vegetables.

Research also suggests that poor eating habits are a significant risk factor in the development of chronic illnesses (5) and are known to act as precursors for other risk factors, especially being overweight or obese (4). Not surprisingly then, poor nutrition among African American women is believed to contribute to the higher incidences of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases they experience in comparison to White American women. Until minority women’s dietary habits are improved they will continue to be plagued by nutrition related illnesses.

Current literature provides limited explanation as to why African American women have poor dietary practices. What is known from the research is that health disparities, such as lack of access to proper preventative care, stressful lifestyles, lack of education about nutrition, inadequate housing, lower income and the lack of health insurance in the United States, are all believed to be factors in poor health outcomes among African Americans (6). The ongoing disparity in well-being between African Americans and their fellow citizens suggests further efforts are required to identify and implement appropriate strategies to improve this group’s nutritional and overall health status. This study aimed to contribute to this effort by surveying African Canadian women to explore both their eating habits and their perceptions of nutrition. The results of this study provide useful information for health care practitioners and educators seeking to improve health among minority populations.

### Methods

#### Participant Recruitment

The targeted participant group for this study were Canadian women of African ancestry who were 25 years of age or older. The recruitment process involved approaching African Canadian women in shopping malls, medical centers, universities/colleges and churches, providing them with a brief overview of the survey, and inviting them to participate. Those women who agreed to participate were given a consent form to read and sign. Recruitment was not stratified by socioeconomic status as many participants refused to fill out the survey or answer the open-ended question if their income, marital status or educational background was required. After one month of recruitment, 50 African Canadian women agreed to participate in the study.

#### Survey implementation

Each participant was given a written questionnaire to complete. On average, the questionnaire took participants approximately two minutes to finish. Participants were then asked an open-ended question and a digital recorder was employed to record their responses. This oral portion of the survey took approximately one and a half minutes to complete. For the purposes of confidentiality, all the respondents were assigned a file number.

#### Primary outcome measures

The primary outcome measures for the study were to provide some useful insights into African Canadian women’s dietary habits and their awareness of nutrition. It is hoped that these findings lead to open dialogues among health practitioners and educators on how best to promote healthier lifestyles among women of African descent in North America and beyond.

#### Procedures

The survey questionnaire used a likert scale to assess participant’s top dietary approaches to good nutrition; barriers to healthy eating; familiarity with Canada’s Food Guide and its recommendations; motivators in changing dietary habits; sources for nutrition information; nutrition concerns; importance of nutrition to improving Black women’s health and ratings of dietary habits. The open-ended question asked participants to indentify strategies they believed would be useful in promoting healthy eating habits among African Canadian women. With the exception of questions focusing on the link between nutrition and Black women’s health, the survey questions were adapted from the Canadian National Institute of Nutrition: Tracking Nutrition Trends series of surveys (7).

#### Statistical analysis

Analyses of the data were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 13.0. Responses to the survey questions were coded, allowing the data to be converted into numbers. This descriptive data was then calculated and expressed as means, standard deviations, and percentage except where otherwise noted.

### Results

A total of 50 African Canadian women, ranging in age from 31 to 78 years, took part in the study. All 50 participants completed the survey questionnaire and answered the open-ended question. Based on analysis of survey results only 6% (n=3/50) of the respondents rated their present eating habits as “excellent”, whilst 36% (n=18/50) rated them as “very good”, 40% (n=20/50) as “good”, and 18% (n=9/50) as “fair.” (Table 1). Top dietary changes adopted by participants to improve their nutrition included reducing salt, fat and/or sugar intake, and/or increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.

When asked to identify barriers to adopting good eating habits the participants gave a variety of responses; 52% (n=26/50) of the women cited lack of time to prepare healthy meals, 26% (n=13/50) selected taste as an impediment and 22% (n=11/50) cited lack of desire as an obstacle. Affordability of healthy foods was not selected as a barrier to healthy eating, which may suggest that costs associated with buying healthy foods is not a concern for these women. Interestingly, only 38% (n=19/50) of the sampled women were aware of Canada’s Food Guide, whereas 62% (n=31/50) of the women were not familiar with the guide. Most women who knew of the guide also cited that they were familiar with some of its recommendations regarding daily nutritional needs. 52% (n=26/50) of the women also said that they considered themselves “somewhat knowledgeable” about nutrition, while 22% (n=11/50) reported they were “very knowledgeable”, 18% (n=9/50) “extremely knowledgeable” and 8% (n=4/50) “quite knowledgeable.”

On the topic of how important participants believed good nutrition was in maintaining or improving Black women’s health, 52% (n=26/50) of the respondents answered “extremely important,” 42% (n=21/50) said “very important” and 6% (n=3/50) recorded “somewhat important.” The top three nutritional concerns for participants were consuming too much fried foods (70%, n=35/50), consuming too much sodium (68%, n=34/50) and the presence of trans fat in foods (62%, n=31/50) (Figure 1). In terms of where they typically obtained nutritional information, 56% (n=28/50) of the women reported turning to standard nutrition leaflets/booklets, whereas 28% (n=14/50) consulted with their physician for dietary advice (Figure 2). Participants identified a number of key motivators to improving dietary habits, “having a health condition” (46%, n=23) and “to maintain health” (28% (n=14) were the top two motivators (Table 2).

#### Analysis of Open-ended Question

When asked what strategies could be employed to encourage African Canadian women to adopt healthy eating habits, a number of answers were given. Introducing nutritional workshops/classes through community-based (i.e. church) programs was a suggestion offered by many of the women. For example, one woman conveyed “if there were nutrition classes available in my church I would definitely go,” while another said “I think having some workshops to teach Black people more about good eating is a very good idea…I would go to the classes.” Still another woman echoed the idea of the church as an ideal place to deliver meaningful and effective health promotional messages within the Black community, explaining that “since a lot of black people do go to church, it would be a good thing to have nutrition classes there to learn more about nutrition.” One woman noted that she had heard of Black churches in the United States offering nutrition and exercise programs for their congregations and said “we need something like that in Canada…if we had our own nutrition or even fitness programs available in our community, a lot of us wouldn’t have all this sickness.”

Many of the participants also noted that any educational offerings about nutrition should be made culturally relevant for the African community. For instance, one woman stated, “if they have nutrition classes available for Black people, it should be cultural and to our needs…we eat different from White Canadians and we have different needs,” and another explained “we need our own diet classes to teach us [Black people] how to cook our own foods more healthy……. black people don’t realize that foods from our country are very healthy….we think that we have to eat Canadian foods to eat good.”

### Discussion

Findings from the survey and an open-ended question indicate that African Canadian women hold a variety of opinions about nutrition, and similarly, practice a variety of eating behaviors. A number of the women had made efforts to modify their current diets by either reducing salt and/or sugar intake or by choosing to consume more fruits and vegetables. Time constraints, lack of taste, and lack of desire were all noted as major barriers that prevented some of the women from adopting healthier diets.

One assumption that can be drawn from the survey findings is that reliance on physician advice about diet may not be sufficient (on its own) to produce desired and sustainable behavioral changes in food habits among African Canadian women. Indeed, many of the women in the survey had not sought or been offered advice on proper nutrition from their physicians. In their research, Podl et al. (8) assert that physicians often do not spend the extra time necessary to help their patients make lifestyle changes that could be beneficial to their health. In particular, physicians often do not give thorough advice or provide specific information on proper eating habits either because they have doubts in their ability to deliver this type of information, and/or doubts about its efficacy in leading to lifestyle change (8). A lack of training in or education about, behavioral counselling on healthy dietary practices among healthcare professionals is a major contributing factor to the reluctance in offering lifestyle advice to patients. Unfortunately, medical schools in and outside the United States only briefly cover nutrition in their curriculum, leaving medical doctors insufficient knowledge to provide assistance to patients with dietary and nutritional needs.

In spite of these challenges, it is essential for healthcare practitioners to provide counselling to their patients on preventative health measures (i.e. nutritional counselling) as health tracking studies continue to show a significant rise in nutrition-related illnesses like cardiovascular disease and diabetes in Canada (9).

The survey outcomes also suggest that more attention should be given to educating African Canadian and other minority women about Canada’s Food Guide. Many of the women in the study were unfamiliar with the guide and did not know the daily recommendations for a healthy diet. It is important that dieticians, nutrition educators and health agencies become more proactive in their attempts to promote Canada’s Food Guide in minority communities. Public service announcements from health agencies via local ethnic community newspapers, for example, could help to increase public exposure to Canada’s Food Guide among African Canadians and other minority populations who are thus far unfamiliar with it. More broadly, efforts should be made among healthcare professionals to identify and implement targeted strategies for improving dietary behaviors, and well-being in general, among minority populations in Canada.

It is important to note that there were a number of limitations and challenges with the present study. During the recruitment phase it became clear that participants were not willing to take part in the study if it required revealing their household income, educational or employment background, or marital status. Without this data, it is difficult to determine whether the sample participants were a representative reflection of the wider African Canadian community and to unravel in what ways the outcomes may have been tied to social class. A second challenge was that it was difficult to persuade participants to complete the survey. Concerns about a lack of cultural sensitivity in research studies and distrust of healthcare professionals (especially worries about being misrepresented or used for the benefit of researchers or for-profit companies) were reasons expressed by many of the women who chose not to complete the survey. These sentiments are in line with American studies that have investigated barriers that impede African American participation in clinical research (10). However, this challenge was somewhat overcome since the lead researcher is a members of the African Canadian community, and was able to connect with many of the women and convince them to participate. Nonetheless, the relatively small size of the sample population (50 women) is a limitation. Recruitment of a larger sample of participants, and a greater effort to include social class indicators, would be useful in further studies on this topic.

Finally, the methodology employed in this study did not include focus groups or detailed interviews. Focus groups are a common and useful method for understanding the perspectives of women of African descent as they allow participants to verbalize and express their opinions on selected subjects. In research undertaken by El-Kebbi et al. (11), for example, a focus group structure was employed to identify barriers to dietary self-management among a group of African Americans with type 2 diabetes (11). The resulting data yielded a wide range of identified barriers including the cost of special foods, poor taste of low fat foods, lack of family support, difficulty using the exchange system and reading food labels, and problems changing habitual patterns of behavior. A focus group or in-depth interviews would have been preferable for this study as it would likely have allowed for better insights into the participant’s dietary practices and nutritional beliefs. Thus it is suggested that future research on this topic use focus groups or detailed interviews in order to gain a deeper understanding of African Canadian women and diet.

### Conclusion

Despite the limitations discussed above, the survey did produce significant findings. For one, while African Canadian women are aware that healthy nutrition practices promote good health, it is also clear that more informed awareness, specific information and education would be beneficial. For instance, African Canadian women would benefit from information about how to be aware of portion size, how to read food labels and how to incorporate the Canada’s Food Guide recommendations into their daily meal plans. As the women identified themselves, introducing more community-based nutritional education programmes would be a good starting point for this kind of learning.

The study also reveals that if African Canadian women are to respond positively to any such nutritional education programs, these programs must be tailored to meet the cultural and linguistic background of these women. Initiating community-based dietary education programmes that are specifically for African Canadian women, for example, ought to include educational materials and resources that reflect this population’s cultural background. For instance, since taste was identified as a potential barrier to healthy eating by many of the women in the survey, the programs would need to encourage a consideration of healthier cooking methods, while at the same time, still allowing for the use and enjoyment of traditional foods and ingredients (12). The programs may also need to take into account economic factors affecting this group such as lack of time resulting from under-employment and low wage employment leading to the need to hold two or more jobs; indeed quite a few of the women cited time constraints as a major barrier to adopting healthy dietary practices. This factor would need to be taken into account in the scheduling of the program as well.

It is also suggested that any nutritional education programs be delivered by trained peer educators or volunteers from the African Canadian community. Given a history of past slavery and present racism, many African Canadian women are understandably distrustful and/or uncomfortable with mainstream institutions and experts, particularly when talking of topics as intimate as food and health. In addition, having trainers of African descent helps to ensure the validity of cultural elements and values in the program material/content and allows the trainers to serve as role models. Additionally, it would be helpful for any initiating nutritional programs to teach more African Canadian women about their African ancestors and how they ate, since they ate much more differently than African Canadians do today. With this knowledge, African Canadian women would not have to feel like they were giving up their traditional food. All of these measures increase the probability that African Canadian women would participate in, and be motivated to learn from, any community-based nutritional educational program offerings.

The higher prevalence and increasing rates of diet-related disease among women of African descent suggest that the need for this population to modify their diets is critical. Canada’s health care infrastructure can afford to, and should, expand health promotion programs encouraging healthy lifestyles among Africans Canadians. Designing and implementing culturally sensitive, community-based nutritional education programs would be a positive step in helping women of African descent and other minority communities in Canada adopt healthy diets, while still enjoying their traditional foods. Furthermore, it should be noted that the findings of this study provide some important, initial insights about African Canadian women and their dietary perceptions and practices, and these insights can be extended to women of African descent in North America and beyond. Further research is warranted to better understand African Canadian women’s eating habits and how these relate to their health and well-being. Equally, because physical activity and exercise are associated with dietary behavior, investigating African Canadian women physical activity level is also encouraged.

### Applications In Sport

Poor lifestyle choices increase the risk of developing a number of disease and health complications. However, a combination of regular exercise and/or physical activity along with good eating habits will significantly decrease the risk and is a primary defence for prevention. Very little information is available on African Canadian women as it relates to dietary habits and their exercise behavior. Further research is needed in this area to find effective intervention strategies and to understand African Canadian women lifestyle practices.

### Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the subjects for their time and co-operation.

There were no specific funding sources for this research survey.

The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

### Tables

#### Table 1
Rating healthy habits

Rate Healthy Habits	valid %	N=50
Excellent	6%	3
Very good	36%	18
Good	40%	20
Fair	18%	9
Total	100%	50

#### Table 2
Key motivators to change / improve diet

key motivators	valid %	N=50
having a health condition	46%	23
to maintain health	28%	14
to prevent other diseases	12%	6
weight loss	8%	4
look better	6%	3
Total	100%	50

### Figures

#### Figure 1
Top Nutrition Concerns
![Figure 1](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/460/figure-1.png “Top Nutrition Concerns”)

#### Figure 2
Source of Nutrition Information
![Figure 1](//thesportjournal.org/files/volume-15/460/figure-1.png “Source of Nutrition Information”)

### References

1. Harris, E., & Bonner, Y. (2001). Food counts in the African American community: Chartbook 2001. Baltimore, MD: Morgan State University.
2. Shikany, J.M., & White, G.L. (Dec 2000). Dietary guidelines for chronic disease prevention. Southern Medical Journal. 93: 1138-1151.
3. Bowen, D.J., & ¬Beresford, S.A. (May 2002). Dietary intervention to prevent disease. Annual Review Public Health. 23: 255-286.
4. American Heart Association. (2009). Heart disease and stroke statistical update 2009. Dallas, Texas: American Heart Association. Available at www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1240250946756LS-1982%20Heart%20and%20Stroke%20Update.042009.pdf
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8. Podl, T.R., & Goodwin, M.A., & Kikano, G.E., & Stange, K.C. (Oct 1999). Direct observation of exercise counseling in community family practice. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 17(3): 207-210.
9. A Perfect Storm of Heart Disease Looming on our Horizon: The Heart and Stroke Foundation’s 2010 Annual Report on Canadians’ Health. Available at http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.5761931/k.8118/2010_R….
10. Corbie-Smith, G., & Thomas, S.B., & Williams, M.V., & Moody-Ayers, S. (Sept 1999). Attitudes and beliefs of African Americans toward participation in medical research. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 14(9): 537-546.
11. El-Kebbi, I.M., & Bacha, G.A., & Ziemer, D.C., Musey, V.C., & Gallina, D.L., & Dunbar, V., & Phillips, L.S. (Sept-Oct 1996). Diabetes in urban African Americans. V. Use of discussion groups to identify barriers to dietary therapy among low-income individuals with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Education. 22(5): 488-492.
12. Mondelus C.V. (2003). Assessing the perceptions of Black American women within Virginia’s faith community regarding health and nutrition practices and their concerns [masters’ thesis]. Virginia: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

### Corresponding Author

Sherldine Tomlinson, M.Sc
2-440 Silverstone Drive
Toronto, Ont. M9V 3K8
<srtomlinson@students.ussa.edu>
1+ (416) 749-7723

Sherldine Tomlinson is the proprietor and a clinical exercise physiologist at the Centre of Chronic Disease & Health Inc. She is also a graduate student at the United States Sports Academy.

U.S. Sports Academy2016-10-12T15:02:32-05:00April 9th, 2012|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology, Women and Sports|Comments Off