Professional Athletes and Work-Related Adversity
Development and Validation of the Professional Athlete Adversity Measure
Keywords:
Psychological Wellbeing, Workplace Adversity, Professional Athletes, StressAbstract
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that the adverse working environment of professional sport may put athletes’ psychological health at risk. The purpose of this study was to gain a clearer understanding of the adversity perceived by professional athletes in their workplace through developing and validating The Professional Athlete Adversity Measure (PAAM). The instrument was designed to measure perceptions of workplace adversity, and was completed by 216 male participants who were employed full time, including 114 professional athletes and 102 members of the public. As hypothesized, results revealed the development of a reliable and valid scale with six factors; Career Insecurity, Workplace Respite, Performance Pressure, Scrutiny, Work/Life Balance and Workplace Fusion. Results also indicate that professional athletes perceived higher levels of adversity than non-athletes in levels of performance pressure they experience, concerns about their career security and retirement, intense levels of scrutiny over their work and a lack of work-life balance. The results of this study provide guidance to those working in professional sport regarding athlete perceptions of the adversity they face, and highlights the importance of empirically assessing occupational workplace adversity as a component of the wellbeing and performance of professional athletes.
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