Laura Wood -DOCTORAL STIPEND 2010
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While research has found that people prefer to participate in sport with others, work examining constraints to participation has primarily taken an individual perspective. Further, recent research has found that participation as a group can facilitate women’s persistence in recreational sport pursuits (Wood & Danylchuk, 2011). Recreational sport groups may be particularly beneficial for mid-to-older women as they can help negotiate or resist societal constraints related to gender and age (Green, 1998). However, recreational sport in the lives of older women is significantly underexplored, with a few exceptions (e.g., Heuser, 2005; Yarnal, Chick, & Kerstetter, 2008). Employing constraints as a framework represents one fruitful approach (Godbey, Crawford, & Shen, 2010). Examining constraints at various levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural) and their impact within a group may provide insight into the group’s ability to operate and engage in activities as a collective, and the groups’ role in helping individuals manage participation related constraints. Understanding the factors that influence participation in sport could assist in the development of effective solutions for increasing participation amongst this population. Thus, this study examined constraints and negotiation processes in a self-organized women’s recreational sport group.
Data were collected using ethnographic methods and analyzed through a grounded theory approach. Although some constraints influenced recreation involvements negatively, the findings predominantly describe how the group collectively developed strategies that enabled them to negotiate most constraints. Specifically, findings highlight six ways in which the group of women negotiated constraints. These include: managing to participate without others, meeting the physical limitations of the majority, reconciling family commitments with group leisure, coordinating activities of group, maintaining connections despite distance, and new members adjusting to group. Importantly, a description of how constraints developed and were negotiated over time was also identified and described, thereby casting the negotiation process in a dynamic light.
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