Abstract

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) first integrated into collegiate athletics in 1906 with the goal to govern burgeoning sports activities. More than 1,098 colleges and universities participate in the NCAA and have sports teams on their campuses. Although NCAA athletics has gained popularity through the years, much of the research and education has focused on men's sports in the NCAA, thus ignoring the sharp increase of women participating in NCAA. This increase came after Title IX was implemented and now almost half of student-athletes in Division I sports are female. While some conducted research includes female student-athletes in the NCAA, less is known about the effect participating in NCAA sports can have on such athletes, specifically focusing on coach-athlete relationships. Therefore, using in-depth interview data from 19 former female student-athletes, this study examines coach-athlete relationships and how these relationships can affect former student-athletes, including whether they feel their coaches support them and how they cope with internal pressure. This exploratory study finds that context matters in understanding coach-athlete relationships, and it determines whether athletes feel supported or unsupported, whether they have positive/negative coach-athlete relationships, how the relationships shape their quality of life, and how they deal with internal pressure stemming from NCAA athletics.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2024-04-16

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13562

Keywords

NCAA, collegiate athletics, female student-athletes, coach-athlete relationships, quality of life

Language

english

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