International Journal of Sport Psychology

swimming (Patton, 2002; Wilson & Powell, 2001). Original (45-60 minutes in length) and follow-up
(30-45 minutes in length) interviews were conducted with each participant. The follow-up
interviews allowed the researcher to further explore participant experiences with the
multiple dimensions of social support, enabled additional collaborative inquiry, and provided
the participants with a chance to add to, clarify, or challenge the researcher’s initial coding of
the data. The interview guide was developed to better understand the multiple dimensions of
social support for elite female athletes. In line with IPA, the interview questions were guided
by empirical sources targeting social support (Bianco & Eklund, 2001; Cutrona & Russell,
1990; Holt & Hoar, 2006; Rees & Hardy, 2000) and informed by literature on interpersonal
relationships and talented athlete development (e.g., Bloom, 1985; Patrick et al., 1999). Following
background information on swimming (e.g., How long have you been involved in swimming?
What events do you swim?) and reasons for swimming (e.g., Why do you swim?), the
interview questions targeted the social network (e.g., Who supports you in your swimming?
What does it mean to you to have [identified person] support you?), the functional resources
provided by each of the significant others within the network (e.g., Tell me how your
[coach/parents/ teammates/peers] supports you in swimming), and perceptions of the availability
and meaning of social support (e.g., How do you feel about [each strategy that the swimmer
discussed from each of coaches/parents/teammates/peers]). During the development of the
interview guide, several steps were taken to ensure the questions and interview process were
age appropriate (Eder & Fingerson, 2002). First, two professionals with experience in interviewing
children and adolescent athletes assessed the interview guide. Second, the lead
researcher conducted pilot interviews with two elite female athletes to ensure that the questions
were interpreted accurately, that what the athletes’ perceived to be the most important
social support dimensions were broached in the interviews, and that the interview length was
appropriate. Following the pilot interviews, there were some changes made to the wording of
the questions, and several questions on motivation (which were originally included out of
interest) were removed due to interview length. Finally, the first author also attended at least
two of each of the swimmers’ practices prior to the data collection. This gave the researcher a
better sense of the swimmers’ training environments and practice activities.
Given the purpose of this study was to explore the multiple dimensions of social support
in an elite swimming context, data were collected and assessed in accordance with IPA (Smith
& Osborne, 2003). IPA is an inductive, phenomenological approach that fosters a data-driven
theorizing perspective to try to gain an insider’s perspective on a particular personal or social
experience. IPA fostered the exploration of the multiple dimensions of social support from
the participants’ perspectives, and enabled the mutual and collaborative meanings of these
experiences to be identified and interpreted (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Therefore, the findings
are a reflection of both the participants’ communication of their social support experiences,
and the researchers’ interpretation of the young athletes’ thoughts and emotions reflected in
what they said and how it was communicated.
Initially, all interviews were transcribed verbatim and stored and organized using the
QSR N6 program. All transcripts were read entirely once, and the most thorough and detailed
interview (Participant #2) was identified as a case document. This transcript was re-read and
analyzed using open coding by identifying and subsequently labeling meaning units related to
social support. Consistent with IPA, the themes were given titles using language that evoked
the swimmers’ experiences, the researcher’s personal thoughts and interpretations of the participant’s
meanings, and sensitizing concepts. Sensitizing concepts were predominantly the
lead researcher’s experiential (i.e., ten years of provincial and national experience in competi-
344