Work-Life Balance Research in Athletic Training: Perspectives on Future Directions

The concept of work-life balance was always an implicit consideration during my time as an athletic trainer but was made explicit for me while conducting one of my first qualitative studies. When examining the professional socialization of athletic trainers,¹ I learned of the various organizational influences experienced by athletic trainers and the negative consequences these influences had on those working in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate setting, including the high work volume and all-consuming nature of their role, which led to concerns about their quality of life. I vividly remember learning of their interrole conflict when participants expressed their advice to others: “[T]he advice or recommendations that I would give would be to find a way to realize that there is life outside of intercollegiate athletics”¹ and “Figure out how to get away from it and still do the job. That's from people at my age level and [who] have been involved the number of years I have; we did not do a good job with that when we were younger.”¹

The findings underscored the conflict that can exist between one's professional work in the clinical setting and one's personal life. Although these results were not surprising, they raised an alarm for me, particularly because some of my respondents were concerned with burnout and found it difficult to attend to their personal needs and responsibilities while being engulfed in their work. I wanted to learn more, dive deeper into these experiences, and understand the factors that influenced this role conflict.

Since this time, the concept of work-life balance has gained a great deal of attention in athletic training. I am glad to have played a very small part in the research on the topic and marvel at the extensive work that has been completed. Indeed, we have seen a proliferation of researchers examining work-life balance.

What started with a focus on work and family interference (eg, work-family conflict and family-work conflict) and the factors that influenced the conflict progressed to a focus on work-life balance. Scholar leaders including Singe, Eason, Goodman, Eberman, and Kahanov, to name a few, were instrumental in the shift. This change in perspective was important as family is a confining construct that can connote relationships with a partner, spouse, sibling(s), child(ren), and parent(s). Of course, family is a key component of our lives, but life itself is much more encompassing. Furthermore, a recent investigation described the extent to which work and life can enrich one another²—thus, we have now seen a shift in research focus from work-life interference to work-life enhancement. In summary, the breadth of research related to interference and enhancement has served us well.

We have learned that attaining work-life balance in athletic training is a multifaceted endeavor influenced by actors within^3–6 and outside an organization^5,7–9 and the individuals themselves.^2,5,7 The influences from these various levels coalesce to shape one's perception of balance. We have learned a great deal about the work-life interface from sociocultural, organizational, and individual levels and have gained a deeper understanding of its influence on specific life roles, such as parenting¹⁰ and motherhood.¹¹ We have come a long way in furthering our realization that work-life balance is an attainable pursuit. But what future research directions are necessary to continue our efforts toward work-life balance for athletic trainers?

I see 3 directions as necessary to advance our research in work-life balance. The first involves how we view “life,” or nonwork domains. Second, given what we have learned at the individual level, we are poised to create professional development programming and examine its effects in enhancing resiliency and hardiness. Third, although cross-sectional and observational studies have served us well, longitudinal studies are needed to understand the temporal nature of perceptions and behavior associated with work-life balance.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE RESEARCH AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

I recently read a 2014 perspective piece on the fallacy of work-life balance in which the author shared, “The constant pursuit of work-life balance actually worsens rather than improves our quality of life by adding additional, often unrealistic, expectations to our already stressful lives.”¹² Furthermore, the author wrote that the concept of work-life balance “…implies that life only occurs whenever we are not at work, demoting the importance of work in our lives and projecting unrealistic expectations onto our time-off-work.”¹²

To be clear, with respect to the first quote, I do not believe the pursuit of work-life balance worsens our quality of life. I was intrigued by the second quote, namely, that work is an integral part of our lives. What are the other parts? It made me reflect on how we have conceptualized life in our past research.

We have seen the relative definition of life in work-life balance as engaging in and effectively managing one's paid occupation while also

• “…being available for personal interests, obligation, and rejuvenation.”¹³

• “…spending sufficient time engaged in other aspects of life, including with family and friends and on personal hobbies and interests.”¹⁴

In the National Athletic Trainers' Association position statement,¹⁵ we stated that work-life balance is “viewed as a positive relationship in which an individual can be engaged in various roles (eg, parent, employee, spouse, caregiver, runner) and relatively satisfied with the time spent in each role.” Situating life this way and in these examples has served us well, and the meaning of life has had utility. That said, I believe to further our understanding of work-life balance in athletic training, we should consider our definition or composition of life in the research context. That is, what we have not done is fully examine the comprehensive aspect of life, or nonwork activities, by examining its components. We have given examples of its parts, such as friends, hobbies, caregiver, interests, obligations, and rejuvenation, but have not been explicit with respect to its domains.

As a starting place, we should consider a model by Keeney et al,¹⁶ who identified 8 nonwork domains: (1) health, (2) family, (3) household management, (4) friendships, (5) education, (6) romantic relationships, (7) community involvement, and (8) leisure. To provide further clarification, the domain of health includes

“[a]ll activities to maintain physical and mental health, such as exercising, going to the doctor and dentist, eating a balanced diet, or meditation. May also include activities that you see as necessary to maintain a healthy appearance…”

To be clear, these life components are likely not a perfect portrayal and may, for some, overlap or intentionally not exist. As we think about how we conceptualize life, it is time to consider the extent to which athletic trainers balance across all its domains or at least attempt to identify which life domains are most unbalanced. For example, health, to my knowledge, has not been explicitly examined in athletic training from the standpoint of balance with work or whether work interferes with our ability to maintain our physical and mental health. As another example, we have yet to explore whether community volunteerism interferes with work-life balance. Domains such as health or community involvement may not have been considered key components of life by previous participants, from both an interference and enrichment perspective. As Keeney et al¹⁶ pointed out, the advantage of a domain-based understanding of work-life interference is allowing organizations to target specific interventions; thus, I believe this is a worthwhile pursuit to extend our knowledge base.

Another point of consideration here is the blurred line between life domains and work and the perceptions held by individuals pertaining to these components. Indeed, dichotomizing them may not be easy, and where life bleeds into work and work into life may not be discernible. The previous definitions of work-life balance were predicated on one's satisfaction with the time spent in a given role. When community involvement consists of volunteering as a medical provider at an event, one could argue that the balance is tipped toward work rather than life. However, this underscores the need to scour our perceptions and the meaning one gives to experience to gain insight into and an understanding of work-life balance.

INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Perhaps the greatest amount of research so far has dealt with the individual's influence on establishing and maintaining work-life balance. A key finding, I believe, was that mindset and personal wellness matter. I think we should capitalize on recent findings and promote the building of professional development programs designed to foster hardiness, resilience, and positive affect—all of which are correlated with improved work-life balance.² For instance, Moskowitz et al¹⁷ created an intervention to develop positive affect and resilience. The program included content based on the stress and coping theory and broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion and comprised such concepts as gratitude, mindfulness, and positive reappraisal. Building related, applicable programming for implementation in an occupational setting or by a professional organization and conducting an intervention study examining the efficacy of such programming could inform our efforts to improve work-life balance at the individual level.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL LONGITUDINAL STUDIES

Mazerolle and Eason¹⁸ conducted one of the few longitudinal studies in athletic training. They followed 6 athletic trainers over the course of a calendar year and found that the time of year influenced their perceptions of work-life balance. This study is a good start, but to the extent that both work roles and life roles change throughout the course of a career, a multiyear longitudinal study would prove insightful.

A longitudinal study that captures measures of hardiness, resilience, and affectivity would, in the words of Mazerolle, Eason, and Goodman,² “offer a different perspective of the relationships among these constructs and solidify our understanding of work-life balance from a comprehensive lens.” When considered with the first direction I articulated earlier, over time, we may also see which life domain shifts to being less balanced for athletic trainers at different points in their lives. Professional development offerings at these specific time points may then be created and implemented to offer some assistance in navigating work-life imbalance episodes.

Work-life balance research in athletic training has come a long way. I was excited to learn of this special issue of the Journal of Athletic Training dedicated to the topic. Work-life balance is not a chimeric journey; it is an attainable pursuit. When action is taken to the extent possible within an organization to support us, when we take the necessary personal steps to cope effectively with various circumstances, and when we and those around us treat one another with grace and decency, work-life balance is possible. What is clear, despite the research done to date and the prolific nature of research on the topic, is that we still have work to do to better understand work-life balance. I look forward to our profession's next generation of research on this topic.