Exploring media stories and narratives of elite athlete motherhood : a meta-synthesis and narrative inquiry of self-portrayals on Instagram

Abstract

Motherhood and athletes’ career goals have long intersected in elite sport as a site to illuminate persistent issues of gender equity, professional sport cultures and inclusion. As athletes continue with sport careers once starting their families, the study of motherhood and high-performance sport has garnered attention from qualitative researchers. These research findings show that the negotiation of a sport career for athlete mothers is complicated due to an inequitable sport system and societal assumptions that women must place children before a sport career. Athlete mothers are also having successful sport careers and performances and being praised, yet they are doing so despite less support, or in the face of shifting support that has a way to go. Researchers have explored the media as a cultural site conveying meanings via narratives/discourses to learn more about these tensions in socio-cultural context. Motherhood was initially studied in mainstream media forms (e.g., news, magazine, sport). Findings showed that motherhood and sport were often portrayed as incompatible with an elite sport career due to media portrayals placing childcare and motherhood as all-consuming or sportswomen being less capable as mothers. Scholars exploring contemporary media representations of motherhood and sport have highlighted nuanced media portrayals of elite athlete mothers that include resistance, conformity, and empowerment. The central purpose of this dissertation was to further explore these intersections in the media to advance understanding of motherhood and sport meanings, the psycho-social implications, and provide future research and applied recommendations. Two studies were conducted using relativist narrative inquiry as a theoretical framework and methodology to achieve these aims. The first study was a meta-synthesis of published qualitative media study findings on elite sport and motherhood. The purpose was to explore the published media studies that included media sources, sports, motherhood status, and nationality to synthesize descriptive trends from the study findings, identify new narrative themes synthesized from findings, and make research recommendations. A total of 15 published studies were gathered spanning from 17 years (i.e., 2006-2022). The descriptive theme findings included: 1) (in)compatibility between athlete and mother identities, 2) motherhood as an individual responsibility, and 3) controlling the body. The new narrative themes were: 1) entitlement to impose and 2) maternal activism and new ethic of care. The second study built off the first study by focusing on the role of sense of community in athlete mothers’ careers. To answer the research questions, visual and textual posts in one social media space (i.e., Instagram) were explored and theorized as small stories (i.e., fragmented and co-created daily happenings) to investigate sense of community meanings for four successful Canadian elite curler mothers (i.e., Rachel Homan, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman, and Sarah Wilkes). A total of 217 posts related to sport, career, family and community were collected and analyzed using a big and small story approach to identify a big story narrative of growth and stability amidst belongingness. The big story narrative was shaped by three small stories highlighting sense of community meanings: (re)integration of children and mothers, striving for excellence, and expanding communities and careers. Collectively, both studies in this dissertation point to more acceptance of motherhood in sport through a range of nuanced big and small stories circulated in a range of media sources (e.g., mainstream, social media), through progressive narratives. The significance of the main findings of the two studies are outlined in the conclusions, along with highlighting the value of narrative inquiry as a theory and methodology to learn more about the mediation of motherhood and sport. Practical suggestions for sport practitioners and media professionals are also put forward.