Parental Perspectives of Work-Family Conflict and Guilt in Collegiate Athletic Trainers: A Descriptive Qualitative Design

Abstract

Context Work-family guilt has been reported among athletic trainers (ATs) working in the intercollegiate setting; however, it has yet to be fully explored from a descriptive, in-depth perspective. Objective To better understand the experiences of work-family conflict and guilt of intercollegiate ATs who are parents. Design Descriptive qualitative study. Setting Intercollegiate athletics. Patients or Other Participants Twelve collegiate ATs (females = 6, males = 6) participated in the study. All 12 were married (12 ± 7 years) with an average 2 ± 1 children (range = 1–4). The ATs reported working 51 ± 9 hours per week and spending 11 ± 7 hours per week on household duties or chores. Data Collection and Analysis One-on-one interviews were conducted with all participants. An inductive descriptive coding process was used to analyze the data after saturation was met. Peer review and researcher triangulation were completed. Results Conflict and guilt were discussed as unavoidable given the equally demanding roles of AT and parent. The resulting guilt was bidirectional, as each role is equally important to the AT. The management theme was specifically defined by 3 subthemes: creating a separation between work and parenting roles, the benefits of having a supportive workplace, and the importance of having coworkers and supervisors with shared life experiences. Conclusions The ATs experienced work-family conflict and feelings of guilt from their parental responsibilities. The guilt described by the ATs was bidirectional, as they placed high value on both their parenting and athletic training roles. Guilt was balanced and managed by reducing the spillover from the parental role into work or work into time at home. By separating roles and having supportive workplace environments, including coworkers and supervisors who had similar life experiences, ATs felt they were better able to meet work and home demands.