Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
8-2010
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Exercise and Sport Sciences
Major Professor
Joy T. DeSensi
Committee Members
Joy T. DeSensi, Steven N. Waller, Allison Anders, Leslee A. Fisher, Quiona Stephens
Abstract
A review of literature has revealed a dearth of research on leisure swimming patterns of Black females. Black youth, both male and female, have a higher rate of drowning than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States (“Water‐related injuries: Fact sheet”, 2005). Two known studies produced by (Irwin et al., 2009; 2010) examining hair as a constraint to swimming for African American youth produced conflicting results. In order to comprehensively examine hair as a constraint to African American female participation in swimming, the current study adopted a qualitative approach which allowed exploration of the cultural background and experiences of the participants enrolled in a required swimming class at Yates University (this is a pseudonym used throughout this research). The following research questions guided the study (a) How does hair influence swimming participation choices of Black females and (b) What is the self-reported degree of difficulty in the constraints negotiation process for Black females who do swim? The major finding is that hair acts as a constraint to swimming for participants of this study, but participants offered ways of negotiating this constraint to still be active participants in swimming.
Recommended Citation
Norwood, Dawn M., "I Am Not My Hair...Or Am I?: Exploring the Minority Swimming Gap. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2010.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/835
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Education Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons