Background/Purpose Selection bias (SB) is a component of measurement error introduced when participants choose not to participate for non-random reasons. In Sport Psychology, homophobia and heterosexism research is at greater risk for SB because of the perceived controversial nature compared to other topics. This study explored whether differences existed in SB between two psychosocial variables: homophobia/heterosexism (HH) and team cohesion (C).
Method A PE Index database search was conducted using: (1) homophobia OR heterosexism AND sport and (2) cohesion AND sport, from 2000-2012. From the HH search, 19 articles were used (50% of search) and 67 C articles were used (65% of search). The examined measures of SB were: response rate (RR), sample size, recruitment, sampling, and design.
Analysis/Results HH article RRs were: 15% reported, 15% not reported, 58% not applicable, and 15% textual analysis. C article RRs were: 35% reported, 55% not reported, 7% not applicable, and 1% textual analysis. There was no significant difference in RR between HH (66.10% ± 44.87) and C articles (63.89% ± 20.20). HH researchers used significantly more qualitative (73.7%) and fewer quantitative (19.4%) designs than C researchers (10.5%, 70.1%). Qualitative analysis indicated that C researchers conducted experimental designs that require multiple layers of approval; HH researchers employed non-experimental designs using snowball sampling.
Conclusions HH researchers are more likely to use non-random samples and employ designs with fewer approval layers than C researchers, distorting the interpretation of SB. Without accessing larger, randomly selected pools of athletes, the impact of HH in sport is unknown.