Title: Experiences of Stress and Coping among Sport Psychology Consultants
Supervisors: Dr Desmond McEwan
Committee members: Dr Erica Bennett (UBC), Dr Katherine Tamminen (University of Toronto)
Abstract:
The study of coach and athlete wellbeing has been a focal point in recent sport psychology research, in part, as a response to the recognition that participation in sport can lead to psychologically detrimental outcomes (Trainor & Bundon, 2023; Rice et al., 2016). As such, there have been recent calls to improve wellbeing among all participants in sport. A proposed way to help abate negative outcomes in sport has been to introduce more sport psychology consultants (SPCs) into sport (Breslin et al., 2019). However, there is limited evidence pertaining to the experiences of practicing sport psychology consultants and how they perceive stress and coping in their profession (Fortin-Guichard et al., 2018). Given the nature of their job, there is potential for sport psychology consultants to experience unique stressors such as feeling responsible or blamed for outcomes of their clients/athletes (e.g., athlete stress management, motivation, and performance; McCormack et al., 2015). Framed by the cognitive motivational relational theory, the aim of this proposed study is to identify the key stressors that SPCs face and examine how they cope with these stressors (Lazarus, 1999). Qualitative data will be gathered at two time-points from practicing sport psychologists in Canada (n≥12). The first time point will involve building rapport between participant and interviewer before exploring the participants’ personal and professional journey in becoming a SPC. The second interview will involve a more specific investigation into topics involving stress and coping among SPCs. Data will be analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis with abductive coding (Braun & Clarke, 2019). Gathering qualitative data regarding the stressors that sport psychologists face and the coping strategies that these professionals practice to help manage their stressors will shed light on perspectives of stress and coping among SPCs, thus responding to calls for progressing evidence-based knowledge on the well-being of all individuals involved in sport.