Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs 06269-1110, USA.
J Athl Train. 2011 Mar-Apr;46(2):194-205. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-46.2.194.
Certified athletic trainers (ATs) working at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level experience challenges balancing their professional and personal lives. However, an understanding of the strategies ATs use to promote a balance between their professional and personal lives is lacking.
To identify the strategies ATs employed in the Division I setting use to establish a balance between their professional and personal lives.
Qualitative investigation using inductive content analysis.
Athletic trainers employed at Division I schools from 5 National Athletic Trainers' Association districts.
A total of 28 (15 women, 13 men) ATs aged 35 ± 9 years volunteered for the study.
Asynchronous electronic interviews with follow-up phone interviews. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Peer review, member checking, and data-source triangulation were conducted to establish trustworthiness.
Three higher-order themes emerged from the analysis. The initial theme, antecedents of work-family conflict, focused on the demands of the profession, flexibility of work schedules, and staffing patterns as contributing to work-life conflict for this group of ATs. The other 2 emergent higher-order themes, professional factors and personal factors, describe the components of a balanced lifestyle. The second-order theme of constructing the professional factors included both organizational policies and individual strategies, whereas the second-order theme of personal factors was separation of work and life and a supportive personal network.
Long work hours, lack of control over work schedules, and unbalanced athlete-to-AT ratios can facilitate conflicts. However, as demonstrated by our results, several organizational and personal strategies can be helpful in creating a balanced lifestyle.
在全美大学生体育协会一级（NCAA Division I）工作的认证运动训练师（ATs）在平衡工作和个人生活方面面临挑战。然而，对于 ATs 用于在工作和个人生活之间取得平衡的策略的理解却很缺乏。
确定 ATs 在 Division I 环境中使用的策略，以在其工作和个人生活之间建立平衡。
使用归纳内容分析的定性研究。
来自全国运动训练师协会 5 个地区的 Division I 学校的在职 ATs。
共有 28 名（15 名女性，13 名男性）年龄 35 ± 9 岁的 ATs 自愿参加了这项研究。
使用异步电子访谈和后续电话访谈进行。使用归纳内容分析对数据进行分析。同行审查、成员检查和数据源三角验证用于建立可信度。
分析得出三个较高层次的主题。最初的主题是工作家庭冲突的前因，侧重于该职业的需求、工作时间表的灵活性和人员配备模式，这些因素导致了这组 ATs 的工作生活冲突。另外两个新兴的较高层次主题是专业因素和个人因素，描述了平衡生活方式的组成部分。专业因素的第二个主题包括组织政策和个人策略，而个人因素的第二个主题是工作和生活的分离以及一个支持性的个人网络。
工作时间长、缺乏对工作时间表的控制以及不平衡的运动员与 ATs 比例可能会导致冲突。然而，正如我们的研究结果所示，一些组织和个人策略可以帮助创造平衡的生活方式。
