Intertwining Influences on Perceptions of Risk, Pain, and Injury in Sport: A Close Study of a Chinese New Immigrant Mother–Daughter Pair

Abstract

Sociological research on sport risk, pain, and injury primarily focuses on young, Western, high-performance male athletes in organized sport. In contrast, ethnic minority women’s experiences with sporting pain and injury, and risk perceptions are often underrepresented. This paper presents a close study of a Chinese new immigrant mother’s risk rationality and practices as related to her daughter’s sporting experiences in New Zealand. A conceptual framework of “neoliberal ethnic discourses of risk” was used to explore how intertwining factors of ethnicity, gender, and immigrant identity, influenced participants’ preferences for particular sports, and their perception and experiences of risk, pain, and injury. This study invites sports sociologists and organizations to consider how cultural and gendered discourses influenced Chinese new immigrant women’s sporting participation in host countries, such as New Zealand, especially why the group might be less active and more resistant to particular sports and physical activities while strongly favoring others.