Career and family aspirations of female athletic trainers employed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting.

CONTEXT: Female athletic trainers (ATs) tend to depart the profession of athletic training after the age of 30. Factors influencing departure are theoretical. Professional demands, particularly at the collegiate level, have also been at the forefront of anecdotal discussion on departure factors.

OBJECTIVE: To understand the career and family intentions of female ATs employed in the collegiate setting.

DESIGN: Qualitative study.

SETTING: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-seven female ATs (single = 14, married with no children = 6, married with children = 7) employed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: All female ATs responded to a series of open-ended questions via reflective journaling. Data were analyzed via a general inductive approach. Trustworthiness was established by peer review, member interpretive review, and multiple-analyst triangulation.

RESULTS: Our participants indicated a strong desire to focus on family or to start a family as part of their personal aspirations. Professionally, many female ATs were unsure of their longevity within the Division I collegiate setting or even the profession itself, with 2 main themes emerging as factors influencing decisions to depart: family planning persistence and family planning departure. Six female ATs planned to depart the profession entirely because of conflicts with motherhood and the role of the AT. Only 3 female ATs indicated a professional goal of persisting at the Division I setting regardless of their family or marital status, citing their ability to maintain work-life balance because of support networks. The remaining 17 female ATs planned to make a setting change to balance the roles of motherhood and AT because the Division I setting was not conducive to parenting.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results substantiate those of previous researchers, which indicate the Division I setting can be problematic for female ATs and stimulate departure from the setting and even the profession.