V. Sondhi
Department of Applied Psychology
Vivekananda College, University of Delhi
Delhi (India)
A. Kant
Department of Applied Psychology
Vivekananda College, University of Delhi
Delhi (India)
B. Pawar
Physical Education and Sports Department
Vivekananda College, University of Delhi
Delhi (India)
Abstract
The present study used a qualitative approach to explore 1) how sports students manage their commitments towards both academics and sports and 2) what kinds of stressors do these sports students experience during this process. A sample of 93 sports students enrolled in various undergraduate programmes of Delhi University (DU) selected through purposive sampling. A semi structured interview was developed for the study. A thematic analysis was used to explore how the students manage the various commitments towards academics and sports as well as to examine the various stressors arising from combining academics and sports. With respect to commitment to academics and sports, four higher order categories or themes emerged: prioritizing academics over sports, prioritizing sports over academics, want to manage both academics and sports but unable todo so, and able to manage both academics and sports equally. Five themes that emerged with respect to the various stressors that sports students experienced while they negotiated their commitment between academics and sports included: lack of support for sports from college administration and teachers, lack of support from non-sports students, lack of support for academics from team-mates, lack of support for academics from coach and lack of support for academics from family. A model has been proposed which tries to integrate and refine the major themes which emerged from the study to form a larger theory.
Key words: Commitments; Stereotypes; Stressors; Sports students; Qualitative study.
