Dabbs earns outstanding article award for research on work-life balance 

As a former Division I assistant coach, Assistant Professor Shaina Dabbs has a firm understanding of the issues relating to work-life balance for individuals in the coaching profession. In 2016 Dabbs teamed with co-authors Jeffrey A. Graham and Marlene Dixon to delve deeper into the subject matter, and the published results have been award winning.

In March, the editorial review board of the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics selected their article, “A Socio-Cultural Perspective of the Work-Life Interface of College Coaches: A Cohort Analysis,” as one of its top published works in 2016. A few weeks later, at the 10th annual College Sport Research Institute Conference at the University of South Carolina, the article was officially recognized as the year’s best, earning the publication’s outstanding article award.

The article examines successful navigation of the work-life interface among sport management scholars and practitioners. Building on Dixon and Bruening’s multilevel model of the work-life interface in sport, the authors analyzed responses from 840 NCAA Division I male and female head coaches to assess the impact of cohort (age/career stage) and gender on work-family conflict and family-work conflict.

“I personally experienced some of the challenges of the profession as it related to work-life balance,” Dabbs said. “That personal experience has created a passion in my research for understanding the coaching profession further and how we can create a working environment more family-friendly. Not only is this research for those in academics, it is also for leaders of athletic departments. They can utilize our results and recommendations to implement practical solutions to help coaches with work-life balance.”

The Elon professor plans to expand on her research in the future, taking a closer look at how caring for aging parents can impact a coach’s work-life interface.

“It is a true honor to be recognized by my peers,” Dabbs added. “I want to publish work that can be impactful to those who are in academia and also those in the field of practice.”

Graham serves as an assistant professor of sport management at the University of Tennessee, while Dixon is a professor of health and kinesiology at Texas A&M University.

The Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics is a peer-reviewed, scholarly, open-access journal dedicated to encouraging, supporting and disseminating interdisciplinary and interuniversity collaborative college-sport research.