Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer athletic trainers: Collegiate student-athletes’ perceptions

Abstract

Context: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) athletic trainers (ATs) face uncertain acceptance in the workplace. Objective: To examine the perceptions of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) student-athletes toward ATs who identified as LGBTQ. Design: Cross-sectional design. Setting: Web-based survey. Patients or Other Participants: A total of 623 (males ¼ 212, females ¼ 403, other ¼ 8; age ¼ 19.7 6 1.4 years) NCAA student-athletes completed the survey. Main Outcome Measure(s): Participants completed a 19-item survey to assess their perceptions about the appropriateness of, quality of care from, and comfort with ATs who identified as LGBTQ. We asked 10 demographic questions and 2 questions regarding the student-athlete’s exposure to individuals who identified as LGBTQ. Five matrix questions had 5 stems each to represent LGBTQ individuals on a 5-point Likert scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree, 5 ¼ strongly agree) and 2 open-ended questions elicited qualitative data. We analyzed characteristics of central tendency to evaluate the level of appropriateness, quality of care, and level of comfort perceived by student-athletes of ATs who identified as LGBTQ. We used Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests for post hoc analyses where appropriate. We used grounded theory to identify themes in the answers to the open-ended questions. Results: Participants indicated they would seek health care and would feel comfortable approaching an AT who identified as LGBTQ. Participants agreed it was appropriate for an LGBTQ AT to work with both male and female sports and did not agree that health care provided by heterosexual and LGBTQ ATs differed. The open-ended responses revealed 4 themes: professionalism, upbringing, situational concerns, and concerns about specific populations that affected their perceptions. Conclusions: In general, the NCAA student-athletes had positive perceptions of ATs who identified as LGBTQ.