A1 Journal article (refereed)
Implications of the Identity Position for Dual Career Construction : Gendering the Pathways to (Dis)continuation (2021)


Ryba, Tatiana V.; Ronkainen, Noora J.; Douglas, Kitrina; Aunola, Kaisa (2021). Implications of the Identity Position for Dual Career Construction : Gendering the Pathways to (Dis)continuation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 53, 101844. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101844


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editors: Ryba, Tatiana V.; Ronkainen, Noora J.; Douglas, Kitrina; Aunola, Kaisa

Journal or series: Psychology of Sport and Exercise

ISSN: 1469-0292

eISSN: 1878-5476

Publication year: 2021

Volume: 53

Article number: 101844

Publisher: Elsevier

Publication country: Netherlands

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101844

Open Access: Publication channel is not openly available

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/73106


Abstract

Objectives
To examine how gender functions in the narrative construction of dual career styles, and how these styles impact the (dis)continuation of a dual career pathway.

Design
Longitudinal qualitative study.

Method
Life story interviews with 18 talented Finnish athletes (10 cis women, 8 cis men) at four points in time – when they averaged 16, 17, 19, and 20 years of age – followed by an integrative narrative-discursive analysis.

Results
(a) contrapuntal style was gender-typically female; (b) monophonic style was gender-typically male; and (c) dissonant style was an important pathway to dual career discontinuation through which gender ideologies impacted the emergent adults with differential outcomes. Although all adolescent athletes aspired to construct a dual career pathway into adulthood, less than half (7 of 18) sustained dual career on and after graduation from upper secondary school. The life course and performance master narratives provided gender-specific scripts for life story and identity development.

Conclusions
Our findings signpost that dual career discourse practices are organised along the gender binary, which may be fortifying the assumed normalcy of gendered life choices instead of opening up the field of possibilities. To facilitate cultural change in dual career development environments, we urge for the critical examination of socio-cultural constraints on adolescent athletes' choices.


Keywords: athletes; young people; identity (mental objects); gender; course of life; narrativity

Free keywords: youth sport; late adolescence; identity development; gender; life story; narrative


Contributing organizations


Related projects


Ministry reporting: Yes

Preliminary JUFO rating: 1


Last updated on 2021-05-01 at 10:33