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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Mean, Lindsey
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
This study situated a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) softball league within the logic of homonormativity and queer futurity and explored how community and identity were constituted, practiced, negotiated, and problematized. The project endeavored to address the questions: What is the meaning and significance of community for the League participants? To what extent and how does participation in the League affect gender and sexual identity discourse and practice? And, in the context of the League, how are dominant ideologies and power structures reinforced, disrupted, and produced? A critical ethnography was undertaken to render lives, relations, structures, and alternative possibilities visible. Data was collected through participant observation, interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and archival document analysis. A three stage process was employed for data transformation including description, analysis, and interpretation. LGBT identified sports clubs, formed as a result of identity politics, are understood to be potential sites of transformation and/or assimilation. Although the League was imbued with the discourses of inclusion and acceptance, the valorizing of competition and normalization led to the creation of hierarchies and a politics of exclusion. The League as an identity-based community was defined by what it was not, by what it lacked, by its constitutive outside. It is possible to learn a great deal about community by looking at what and who is left out and the conspicuous absence of transgender and bisexual participants in the League highlights a form of closure, a limit to the transformative potential of the League.
ContributorsMertel, Sara (Author) / Bortner, Peg (Thesis advisor) / Allison, Maria (Committee member) / Mean, Lindsey (Committee member) / Kivel, Dana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Resettled refugees face numerous challenges including unsafe living conditions, loss of permanent shelter, adjustment to a new culture, loneliness, and separation from family, friends, and community. Of particular importance is the lack of a feeling of sense of community (SOC) within their new surroundings. SOC is not only worthwhile as an outcome of its own, but may also predict additional positive outcomes such as resilience and cultural adjustment. Literature has shown participation in sport can develop youth positively and build social skills, while studies in other regions of the world have also found a sport team setting to be a place for immigrants to experience SOC. In this study, I use a congruent mixed methods approach to both explore the experience of SOC for youth refugees in a soccer club, and examine the relation of SOC to resilience and cultural adjustment. Using photo-elicitation and semi-structured interviews with 11 youth participants, the qualitative portion of the study explored SOC among youth participants. Findings note the presence of SOC as matched to theoretical frameworks both specific to sport, and to a more general theory of SOC. Further data were collected through questionnaires distributed to club members. Results from the quantitative analysis indicate a significant positive relation between SOC and resilience, and SOC and perceived acculturation. This study’s contribution is to illustrate how refugee youth in a sport club in the United States experience SOC, and the impact of that SOC. Results suggest practical implications for sport managers who wish to provide positive sport experiences for youth refugees.
ContributorsFader, Nina (Author) / Legg, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Larsen, Dale (Committee member) / Klimek, Barbara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
ABSTRACT
Elite experience and careers in judged female sports complicate the binary categories of retirement while they are especially exposed to cultures of abuse, pressure and subjectivity. This thesis is comprised of multiple voices and experiences from the elite female athletic perspective, including my autoethnographic narrative. Highlighted and discussed are the topics of sexual assault and abuse, family pressure on children to do and excel at sport, the National Team experience representing the United States and subjected bodies and judging. It is an aim of this thesis to culminate all of those factors in the final chapter and hold that the experience and the cultures of athletic identity within synchronized swimming, gymnastics and figure skating not only cannot be explained by current research on athletic identity through retirement but have the capability to retire undeveloped young women by overdeveloped athletic identities. Through a sampling of voices and experiences across different female judged sports, over three decades, the reader will observe similarities that cause these sports to have a culture of solidarity through the aspects they hold in common with each other. The narrative highlights pivotal moments in the lives of the elite female athlete within these sports, which add to the calculation of their athletic identities and the lack of their personal identities. Through reflection and analyses of not only my story, but the interviewees from my original research and that of Joan Ryan’s as well, I aim to voice a mutual experience of elite athletes. Consisting of multiple factors throughout many years we will see through my autoethnography, paralleling with other voices and experiences, how it all intersects and contributes to this: Who am I now and where do I go from here?
Elite experience and careers in judged female sports complicate the binary categories of retirement while they are especially exposed to cultures of abuse, pressure and subjectivity. This thesis is comprised of multiple voices and experiences from the elite female athletic perspective, including my autoethnographic narrative. Highlighted and discussed are the topics of sexual assault and abuse, family pressure on children to do and excel at sport, the National Team experience representing the United States and subjected bodies and judging. It is an aim of this thesis to culminate all of those factors in the final chapter and hold that the experience and the cultures of athletic identity within synchronized swimming, gymnastics and figure skating not only cannot be explained by current research on athletic identity through retirement but have the capability to retire undeveloped young women by overdeveloped athletic identities. Through a sampling of voices and experiences across different female judged sports, over three decades, the reader will observe similarities that cause these sports to have a culture of solidarity through the aspects they hold in common with each other. The narrative highlights pivotal moments in the lives of the elite female athlete within these sports, which add to the calculation of their athletic identities and the lack of their personal identities. Through reflection and analyses of not only my story, but the interviewees from my original research and that of Joan Ryan’s as well, I aim to voice a mutual experience of elite athletes. Consisting of multiple factors throughout many years we will see through my autoethnography, paralleling with other voices and experiences, how it all intersects and contributes to this: Who am I now and where do I go from here?
ContributorsHaylor, Alyson (Author) / Colbern, Allan (Thesis advisor) / Mean, Lindsey (Committee member) / Kassing, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The present study explored memorable messages that professional female athletes have recalled throughout their careers. This study sought to understand what types of memorable messages are recalled by female athletes that have made it to the top of their sports at the professional level and to understand whether the recalled memorable messages were gendered or not. Respondents were asked via a survey questionnaire to recall a memorable message, describe the meaning and context of the message and finally what effect, if any, the message had on them. Qualitative survey questionnaire responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results indicated that memorable messages were not gendered in any way but there were several relevant themes, which included: wisdom, performance, instruction, motivation, dedication and identity. These results are new to the field of memorable messages within the field of sport and hold significance for future research.
ContributorsMatthews, Robyn J. H (Author) / Kassing, Jeffrey (Thesis advisor) / Mean, Lindsey (Committee member) / Waldron, Vincent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
In sports, athletes reach new levels every day and are truly masters of their own bodies. Yet, when placed under pressure, the pin-point accuracy and elite level of performance can begin to wane. Despite plentiful literature investigating the effects of pressure on performance, the underlying mechanisms behind decreased performance in sport are not yet clear. The current research discusses possible theories for “choking under pressure”, the specific mechanisms through which pressure has its effects, and methods to prevent “choking.” Fourteen current and former basketball players shot free throws with two primary predictor variables: the presence/absence of performance pressure and the restriction
on-restriction of movement during the pre-shot routine. Results were analyzed using 2x2 Within-Subjects Analysis of Variance. For shooting performance, there was an interaction (approaching significance) such that participants were more affected by pressure when allowed to execute their pre-shot routine. For kinematic variables, significant interactions between pressure and movement restriction were found for elbow-knee cross correlations and there were significant main effects of variability of the acceleration of both the elbow and knee angles. In all kinematic measures, participants exhibited more “novice-like” patterns of movement under pressure when movement was not restricted during the pre-shot routine. Primary results indicate promising evidence that motor control may be a mediating variable between pressure and performance and bring into question the value of a pre-shot routine in basketball.
on-restriction of movement during the pre-shot routine. Results were analyzed using 2x2 Within-Subjects Analysis of Variance. For shooting performance, there was an interaction (approaching significance) such that participants were more affected by pressure when allowed to execute their pre-shot routine. For kinematic variables, significant interactions between pressure and movement restriction were found for elbow-knee cross correlations and there were significant main effects of variability of the acceleration of both the elbow and knee angles. In all kinematic measures, participants exhibited more “novice-like” patterns of movement under pressure when movement was not restricted during the pre-shot routine. Primary results indicate promising evidence that motor control may be a mediating variable between pressure and performance and bring into question the value of a pre-shot routine in basketball.
ContributorsOrn, Anders (Author) / Gray, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Branaghan, Russell (Thesis advisor) / Craig, Scotty (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Operating within the framework of a public health model that emphasizes the prevention of health concerns through the identification of risk and protective factors, this study approaches the health disparities Latinxs face from a strength-based stance through the promotion of sport and exercise participation. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that promote sport and exercise participation within a Latinx college student sample using cross-sectional data from the Healthy Minds Study (HMS) from cohort years 2016 through 2020. It was hypothesized that psychosocial-cultural predictors (i.e., sense of belonging, discrimination, depression, anxiety, and positive mental health) would predict Latinx college students’ participation in (1) sports and (2) exercise while accounting for established factors such as demographic (gender, financial hardship, US-born status) and academic (i.e., GPA, academic persistence) variables. Further, the study incorporated an exploratory approach to further examine gender-based differences in (1) sport and (2) exercise participation rates among the aforementioned study variables. Preliminary analyses using chi-squared analyses, point bi-serial correlations, and group differences using t-tests were conducted. The main analyses conducted using logistic regression indicated that psychosocial cultural variables predict (1) sport and (2) exercise participation while accounting for demographic and academic variables. However, the classification accuracy for sport participation with the addition of psychosocial-cultural variables was not compelling so individual predictors were not analyzed. For exercise participation, gender, financial hardship, sense of belonging, discrimination and positive mental health were the only individual, significant factors. Further, in terms of gender differences, it appears that financial hardship, GPA, and discrimination uniquely affect Latinx women. Implications for academic institutions, coaches/fitness instructors, and clinicians are further discussed.
ContributorsSandoval Martinez, Alejandra (Author) / Tran, Alisia (Giac-Thao) (Thesis advisor) / Dillon, Frank (Committee member) / Lopez, Vera (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
More than 200 hikers are rescued annually in the greater Phoenix area. This study
examined the impact of hiking in hot (HOT), dry temperatures versus moderate (MOD)
temperatures on dietary intake behaviors as well as markers of heat stress. Twelve
recreational mountain hikers climbed “A” Mountain four consecutive times (4-miles) on
a HOT day (WBGT=31.6 °C) and again on a MOD day (WBGT= 19.0 °C). Simulated
food and fluid behavior allowed participants to bring what they normally would for a 4-
mile hike and to consume both ad libitum. The following heat stress indicators (mean
difference; p-value), were all significantly higher on the HOT hike compared to the MOD
hike: average core temperature (0.6 °C; p=0.002), average rating of perceived exertion
(2.6; p=0.005), sweat rate (0.54; p=0.01), and fluid consumption (753; p<0.001). On the
HOT hike, 42% of the participants brought enough fluids to meet their individual
calculated fluid needs, however less than 20% actually consumed enough to meet those
needs. On the MOD hike, 56% of participants brought enough fluids to meet their needs,
but only 33% actually consumed enough to meet them. Morning-after USG samples
≥1.020 indicating dehydration on an individual level showed 75% of hikers after the
HOT hike and 67% after the MOD hike were unable to compensate for fluids lost during
the previous day’s hike. Furthermore, participant food intake was low with only three
hikers consuming food on the hot hike, an average of 33.2g of food. No food was
consumed on the MOD hike. These results demonstrate that hikers did not consume
enough fluids to meet their needs while hiking, especially in the heat. They also show
heat stress negatively affected hiker’s physiological and performance measures. Future
recommendations should address food and fluid consumption while hiking in the heat.
examined the impact of hiking in hot (HOT), dry temperatures versus moderate (MOD)
temperatures on dietary intake behaviors as well as markers of heat stress. Twelve
recreational mountain hikers climbed “A” Mountain four consecutive times (4-miles) on
a HOT day (WBGT=31.6 °C) and again on a MOD day (WBGT= 19.0 °C). Simulated
food and fluid behavior allowed participants to bring what they normally would for a 4-
mile hike and to consume both ad libitum. The following heat stress indicators (mean
difference; p-value), were all significantly higher on the HOT hike compared to the MOD
hike: average core temperature (0.6 °C; p=0.002), average rating of perceived exertion
(2.6; p=0.005), sweat rate (0.54; p=0.01), and fluid consumption (753; p<0.001). On the
HOT hike, 42% of the participants brought enough fluids to meet their individual
calculated fluid needs, however less than 20% actually consumed enough to meet those
needs. On the MOD hike, 56% of participants brought enough fluids to meet their needs,
but only 33% actually consumed enough to meet them. Morning-after USG samples
≥1.020 indicating dehydration on an individual level showed 75% of hikers after the
HOT hike and 67% after the MOD hike were unable to compensate for fluids lost during
the previous day’s hike. Furthermore, participant food intake was low with only three
hikers consuming food on the hot hike, an average of 33.2g of food. No food was
consumed on the MOD hike. These results demonstrate that hikers did not consume
enough fluids to meet their needs while hiking, especially in the heat. They also show
heat stress negatively affected hiker’s physiological and performance measures. Future
recommendations should address food and fluid consumption while hiking in the heat.
ContributorsPelham, Emily Claire (Author) / Wardenaar, Floris (Thesis advisor) / Whisner, Corrie (Committee member) / Levinson, Simin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020