DesClouds Poppy, Durand-Bush Natalie
SEWP Lab, School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Front Sports Act Living. 2021 Jan 6;2:560031. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2020.560031. eCollection 2020.
Varsity athletes are a group of high performers situated within a demographic notable for smartphone usage and media-multitasking. Surprisingly, little research has examined the impact of smartphones in the lives of varsity athletes. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to begin addressing this gap by investigating varsity athletes' experiences with smartphones. Varsity athletes ( = 21) from nine different sports participated in one of five focus groups, and data emerging from these discussions were subjected to an inductive thematic analysis. Results indicate that smartphones are a mainstay of varsity athletes' experiences, as the athletes regularly use their smartphones to manage roles and demands across multiple contexts (e.g., sport, school, home). Themes pertained to concurrent negative (e.g., stress, distraction, disengagement) and positive (e.g., self-regulation, social connectedness) implications of smartphone usage, making it clear that athletes' relationship with their smartphone is a complicated one. Findings contribute to the limited studies of smartphone usage among athletes, and support the notion that implications of usage exist along a continuum, rather than in distinct categories of "good" and "bad". Results can inform practical guidelines for optimising athletes' use of smartphones in and around the sport context.
大学生运动员是一群在以智能手机使用和媒体多任务处理而闻名的人群中表现出色的人。令人惊讶的是，很少有研究探讨智能手机在大学生运动员生活中的影响。这项探索性的定性研究的目的是通过调查大学生运动员使用智能手机的经历来开始填补这一空白。来自九个不同运动项目的21名大学生运动员参加了五个焦点小组中的一个，这些讨论中产生的数据进行了归纳主题分析。结果表明，智能手机是大学生运动员经历的一个主要部分，因为运动员经常使用他们的智能手机来管理多个环境（如运动、学校、家庭）中的角色和需求。主题涉及智能手机使用的同时产生的负面（如压力、分心、脱离接触）和正面（如自我调节、社交联系）影响，这表明运动员与他们的智能手机的关系是复杂的。研究结果为运动员使用智能手机的有限研究做出了贡献，并支持这样一种观点，即使用的影响存在于一个连续体中，而不是在“好”和“坏”的不同类别中。研究结果可以为优化运动员在运动环境内外使用智能手机的实用指南提供参考。
