African American Women's Perceptions of Stress and Coping Strategies Associated with Collegiate Sports

African American women's participation in college sports has increased dramatically since the passage of Title IX in 1972. With a large representation of African American women participating in college sports, limited qualitative data existed on how they perceived and coped with stress while participating in college sports. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to explore, interpret, and describe the perceptions of 10 African American female athletes relevant to the stress encountered and the coping strategies used while participating in collegiate sports. The primary research question channeling this study was: What are the perceptions of African American (AA) female athletes related to stress and coping strategies associated with participating in collegiate sports? The data collection sources were the semistructured interview and the focus group discussion. Data analysis included thematic coding and categorizing. Based on the commonalties, five major themes were identified. They were the following: balancing academics and athletic success, support from family and friends, coping with injuries, negative gender stereotypes, and perceptions of racism.