FORMAS CLINICAS DEL ASMA BRONQUIAL

STUDY 2: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING MENTAL TOUGHNESS AND STRESS/RECOVERY IMBALANCE

The correlations displayed in Study 1 demonstrated that a number of patterns exist between MT attributes and stress/recovery. Some correlations were indicative of MT characteristics potentially buffering an athlete’s ability to manage stress and recovery in general life and sport-specific situations. These results support the view that MT, as a construct, may safeguard against adversity as Gucciardi et al. (2008) described. Some of the results from Study 1 seemed to indicate that particular attributes of MT were associated with less recovery. When athletes displayed close to maximal scores in these MT attributes, recovery scores were low. Athletes who score themselves high for these MT attributes could potentially be susceptible to SRI, injury/illness, burnout, and OTS. Attributes with this pattern included mental self-concept and task familiarity.

The aim of this second study was to explore in detail how MT attributes might affect stress and recovery, paying particular attention to positive stress/recovery balancing stories and potential negative aspects of MT. I gathered information through semi-

structured in-depth interviews and focussed on athletes’ and coaches’ stories of MT and SRI, and situations where participants felt they had demonstrated MT. In addition, I

focussed on how attributes of MT may have helped or hindered the participants in sport and in a wider sense–life outside sport.

Method Participants

I recruited a total of 11 elite athletes and coaches, aged 18 and over, from the Australian Football League. Coaches were included in the sample to gain a wider

perspective on MT development and SRI. The sample comprised three coaches, four senior AFL players, and four first- or second-year players. All participants were from the same team. One coach had been a professional player for 13 years, and at the time of data

collection had been coaching for 5 years. The second coach had initially been involved as a player in the AFL, but retired early in his career due to a serious injury. Following his retirement from professional football, he became involved in coaching. He had been in his current coaching role in the AFL for 6 years during the data collection period. The third coach was in his first year of coaching senior AFL, but he had coached in different sports at an international level throughout his career.

The four senior footballers had been competing at the elite level for between 6 and 9 years, and the four junior footballers had been playing AFL for between 1 and 2 years. The eight players had come through two different pathways, three through the national draft, and five through the rookie list. The national draft is when clubs pick young players who have not experienced senior-level AFL football. The rookie list is for players who were not successful in the national draft or who may have been delisted from another club. The rookie list represents a last chance for many players. Following the 2-year rookie contract, a player may be elevated to the senior list or delisted.

I recruited the AFL players following interviews with the coaches and after reviewing the players’ responses from my first study. I deemed players relevant to this

project if coaches described them as being exceptionally mentally tough, mentally weak, or had experienced SRI in their careers.

Theoretical saturation, that is, when interviews with new participants no longer provided novel information, determined the sample size (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). I also drew on Patton’s (2002) approach to determine sample sizes. As a guiding principle, Patton recommended that investigators estimate the minimum sample size they believe necessary to answer their research questions, and add more participants if doing so helps them achieve the purposes of their studies. A minimum sample size is a researcher’s best guess based on knowledge of the area. For this study, a minimum sample size was estimated at being ten participants (based on past similar studies), but I continued collecting data for 11 participants to reach saturation.

Interviews

To provide a foundation for the semi-structured in-depth interviews, I developed an interview guide that contained topics for discussion derived from Study 1 and previous published research. The guide comprised of three sections: MT perceptions and

experiences, SRI perceptions and experiences, and perceptions of the role of MT in SRI (see Appendix F). The interview questions were open-ended to access potentially rich contextual information regarding MT, SRI, and OT development. Each interview included questions relating to definitions of MT, attributes of MT, benefits and potential problems of MT in sporting and nonsporting environments, experiences with SRI and OT behaviours, and perceptions of the relationship between MT, SRI, and OT. In the first coach interview, I found that by attempting to stick rigidly to my interview guide I was directing the

when conversations are participant-centred and able to flow. During the following coach interviews, I decided to try to listen closely to the participants using my interview guide as a reference point and let the individuals direct their own stories rather than attempting to fit the participants into my predetermined structure. This evolution of interviewing, starting with a guide and then branching out is typical of interview–based research. The information gathered covered a broad range of topics that each participant felt was relevant to the study and to the area of research.

Procedure

After the Victoria University Faculty of Arts, Education, and Human Development Human Research Ethics Committee granted approval for this study, I contacted three AFL coaches to ask if they would be interested in participating in my study. I explained to the coaches that I would like to hear their personal opinions and experiences regarding MT, SRI, and stories of their mentally tough (and not so tough) athletes. After meeting and interviewing these three coaches, I contacted nine footballers whom the coaches had described as demonstrating either exceptional MT, lacking MT, or had substantial

experience with SRI, recurrent illness, and/or injury. Of the senior players suggested, one declined to be involved in the study. All of the junior players contacted agreed to be involved. I offered each participant a choice of venue for the one-to-one interview: the offices at Victoria University, at the training ground, or at any other venue where he felt comfortable. All of the participants except one chose to use the offices at Victoria

University. There was a consensus that the players and coaches felt comfortable talking to me away from the club venue. One participant chose a coffee shop for our interview. He explained that he did not want to be near anyone that he might know.

I explained to each participant that I would digitally record the interview, that it would last approximately 1 to 1.5 hours, and that all information provided would remain confidential. I informed each footballer and coach that the interview would focus on perceptions of MT, experiences of SRI, and opinions regarding how MT and SRI may be related. After the initial coach interview, I added that although there were specific areas that I would like to concentrate on individuals should feel comfortable telling their own stories.

Prior to the commencement of each interview, I obtained written consent to conduct and record the interview (see Appendix G). I informed each coach and footballer that participation was strictly voluntary. I advised participants that any identifying information from the interviews would be available only to the researchers. It was important to

reinforce to the athletes that all information was confidential and no information would find its way back to the club because of my previous involvement in a study at the club in which I gathered data for the coaches.

I gave each participant a brief introduction explaining the aims of the research, and I invited them to ask any questions. Each interview began with questions regarding

demographic information (such as age, sport involvement, and sport development) designed to help the participants relax. Then I asked questions that gave the athletes an opportunity to recall their experiences regarding MT and SRI. As each individual interview progressed, I used clarification and elaboration probes to facilitate my understanding and to ensure the participant had no more information to add. The interviews lasted between 55 and 115 minutes. At the conclusion of each interview, I debriefed participants and thanked them for their involvement. I transcribed the recordings verbatim as soon as possible after each interview. After transcribing each interview, I reread each transcript while listening to the

digital recording to ensure accuracy of the transcriptions, and then sent all interviewees full transcripts of their interviews for member checking to enhance credibility (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). I invited all participants to verify the accuracy, and add, alter, or delete any content.

Data Analysis

To organise and interpret the participants’ stories I used content analysis with key issues and concepts from the published literature and Study 1 serving as organising codes for deductive content analysis. When unique codes emerged from the data, I used inductive content analysis. I used the coding techniques Miles and Huberman (1994) recommended to draw categories and themes from the qualitative data. Researchers have used these techniques in earlier qualitative sport psychology research on MT (e.g., Bull et al., 2005; Gould et al., 1999; Jones et al., 2002; Middleton et al., 2004a). I then compared the data from the coding with the aim being to organise the information into general categories. At this point in the data analysis, I felt uneasy about trying to reduce the data into specific categories, because in many cases there were opposing views within the categories. In the categories where conflict emerged, it seemed that participants had two opposing viewpoints without shades of grey in between. It appeared that I was losing the rich details of the participants’ stories by trying to fit them into the categories. After discussions with my supervisors about the difficulties trying to code the data, I decided to try to write up each participant as an individual story, because it seemed that the quantity of conflicting information merited a case-study approach. I reread each interview and wrote up profiles encompassing the main themes of each athlete’s story.

On reflection, this methodology created significant overlap, and it seemed like I would be telling the same story repeatedly. After another discussion with one of my supervisors, he encouraged me to present the participants stories as aggregate case studies encompassing the conflicting viewpoints from the 11 participants. I reread each interview and reviewed the individual profiles I had created for each participant. The individual profiles shared many similarities and the 11 interviews naturally split into a number of broad themes. I then organised the relevant quotes under the broad themes. This allowed me to pull together similar quotes under general themes to use in the stories. These broad themes helped me develop the fictional characters and storylines for this study. I reviewed the quote headings and found a number of subthemes within the broad headings. These subthemes provided rich detail for the fictional tales. I went through several different structures for my fictional characters trying to include as much detail as possible, and I tried to focus the stories around MT and SRI. In my attempt to stay strictly with MT and SRI, it seemed that chunks of the participants’ stories would not fit.

My supervisor urged me to, “just tell the story.” I decided to move away from my rigid structure of MT and SRI, and I attempted to encapsulate the conflicting viewpoints in two stories. By moving away from a rigid structure and trying to tell the participants’ stories, the narrative for both tales appeared fully immersed in MT and OT behaviours. Using the quotes verbatim meant I could maintain a realist element to my tales.

I chose to include my voice throughout the narrative tales, and later the case studies, because the stories are co-constructed by the researcher and the participants. Including my personal thoughts and experiences maintained a confessional tale stance in the tradition of Sparkes (2002) who stated, “some suggest that researchers-as-authors need to indicate their

positioning in relation to the research process” (p. 17). The aim of including a personal voice in this thesis was to clarify my position in relation to the research process.

When I wrote the aggregate stories, I made sure I altered details that might have led to identifying the real-life athletes and coaches. I changed injuries, ages, locations, and family details, to try to maintain anonymity and the resultant fictional tales protected the identity of each participant. In the following chapters, I will use parenthesis to identify any actions by the participants that add value to the quote and square brackets for any