Scheduled for Research Consortium Poster Social: Representative Research in HPERD, Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall, Reseach Consortium Poster Sessions


Race and Gender Effects On Perceived Discrimination Among College Coaches

Aaron W. Clopton, Marshall University, Huntington, WV and Michael Sagas, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

Gross inequities in the coaching landscape have matriculated into the twenty-first century – the most prominent illustrations being the gender and racial consistency of head coaches in women's sports and Bowl Championship Subdivision football, respectively (Acosta & Carpenter, 2006; Lapchick & Brenden, 1999). Sport management literature has previously assessed the extant inequality through access discrimination (Cunningham & Sagas, 2005) and treatment discrimination (Cunningham & Sagas, 2003), among others. Scant research, however, has explored the potential existence of perceived discrimination among coaches as a possible barrier in the coaching profession, a notion that leads to the formation of a glass ceiling upon those underrepresented (Stroh et al., 1996). This study was aimed at the current perceptions of racial and gender discrimination, in addition to the presence of general discrimination among coaches in college sport. Through the ethnic-prominence hypothesis, previous research has shown the existence of an interaction between race and gender and its impact upon perceived discrimination (Levin et al., 2002). Using this basis, research questions were aimed at the presence of a glass ceiling for underrepresented coaches in race and gender. Data were collected from coaches in colleges across all NCAA divisions. A total of 344 surveys were returned for a response rate of 43.1%. To explore the research question, only those coaches listed as white or African-American were used for the study (N=319). A MANOVA was created to evaluate the main effects of race and gender upon various facets of discrimination. The main effects for both race (Wilks' Lambda F[311]=3.65, p<.001) and gender (Wilks' Lambda F[311]=13.11, p<.01) were found to be significant. Most notable though, and contrary to previous literature (Levin et al., 2002), was the absence of a significant interaction between the race and gender of our coaching respondents. Subsequent ANOVAs revealed significant differences in perceived gender discrimination (F[1,315]=7.34, p<.01) between male and female respondents and in perceptions of general discrimination (F[1,315]=7.89, p<.01), discrimination for female coaches (F[1,315]=10.43, p<.01), and in racial discrimination (F[1,315]=41.84, p<.001) between the Caucasian and African-American coaches. Results suggest that the presence of perceived discrimination may exist in the form of a differential experience for coaches depending on one's race or gender, and, thus, might be creating a glass ceiling for the underrepresented coach. Further research is suggested to investigate the presence of perceived discrimination in coaching and the existence of a potential glass ceiling for minority coaches.
Keyword(s): coaching, gender issues, sport management

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