Formal and informal work-life balance practices of athletic trainers in collegiate and university settings

Abstract

Context: Organizational policies for work-life balance exist, but little is known about athletic trainers’ (ATs’) awareness of and willingness to use them. Objective: To explore ATs’ formal and informal work-life balance policies in the collegiate and university athletic training setting. Design: Sequential mixed-methods study. Setting: Web-based survey. Patients or Other Participants: We sent 4673 e-mails to National Athletic Trainers’ Association ATs (full-time employment for at least 1 year, nonacademic appointment); 1221 participants began our survey (access rate ¼ 26.1%), and 783 completed the survey (64.1% completion rate). Demographics were as follows: men ¼ 375 (48.0%) and women ¼ 404 (51.7%); age ¼ 36 6 10 years; experience ¼ 13 6 9 years; years at current place of employment ¼ 8 6 8 years; and participants with children or minor dependents ¼ 262 (33.5%). Main Outcome Measure(s): We created a 17-item instrument from an earlier qualitative study. A panel of experts (n ¼ 3; employer, employee, and researcher) completed a content analysis. Variables of interest were confidence (scale ¼ 1–4) and satisfaction (scale ¼ 1–5) with policies. We used Pearson v2 analyses to compare the effect of undergoing an orientation and the presence or absence of children on the main outcome measures. Results: A majority of participants had experienced formal orientation through the human resources department (n ¼ 522, 66.8%), the direct supervisor (n ¼ 240, 30.7%), or a colleague (n ¼ 114, 14.6%). However, many had received no orientation (n ¼ 184, 23.6%). Those who had undergone orientation indicated greater confidence in knowing about (P, .001) and greater satisfaction with (P, .001) formal workplace policies and benefits. Those with children stated that they had greater confidence in knowing about (P, .001) and greater satisfaction with (P ¼ .013) formal workplace policies and benefits. Those who had been oriented felt greater confidence in knowing about (P ¼ .009) but no difference in satisfaction with (P ¼ .060) informal workplace policies and benefits. We did not identify differences between those with and those without children regarding their confidence in knowing about (P ¼ .653) or satisfaction with (P ¼ .150) informal workplace policies and benefits. Conclusions: Athletic trainers in the collegiate and university setting were not confident in their knowledge of formal or informal work-life balance policies.