The Lived Experience of the Collegiate Female Student-Athlete

This study explores the lived experience of the collegiate female student-athlete. This population makes up approximately half of the 463,000 student-athletes competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (Irick, 2013). Previous research has explored the benefits and drawbacks of women’s participation in sport and specific experiences within the female student-athlete experience. While research heavily encourages the adolescent girl’s participation in sports, there is conflicting research regarding the impact sport has on the experiences of female student-athletes at an elite level. LaFountaine (2007) found that female student-athletes are not thriving in relation to various aspects of holistic wellness. However, McLester, Hardin and Hoppe (2014) found that very few female student-athletes were susceptible to eating disorders and many had high levels of self-esteem and positive body image. Previous literature has explored the experiences of female student-athletes experiencing depression through a phenomenological perspective, however this whole population has not been explored using hermeneutic phenomenology (Jones et al., 2010; LaFountaine, 2007). The purpose of exploring this population through hermeneutic phenomenology is to gain a rich understanding of the experiences of collegiate female student-athletes so that administrators, coaches, and support staff can gain understanding of their experiences to guide their decisions and actions when leading this population. Participants were female student-athletes in their third or fourth year of eligibility at an NCAA, Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution. One in-depth, unstructured interview was conducted with each participant. Interviews were unstructured to allow the participant to direct the conversation and discuss aspects of her experience that seem most relevant to share. The transcripts were then analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) in which four themes emerged: transition blues, grinding it out, student-athlete bubble, and passing it on. Subthemes within these themes included: freshman year blues, senior year blues, injury, people leave, pressure, coaching issues, consuming, overwhelming support, my team, learning, and teaching. By examining the collegiate female student-athlete’s experience, athletic department staff can gain greater understanding of these experiences and better adapt to meet the needs of each student-athlete to enhance the experiences of this population.