European Sport Management Quarterly
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/resm20
Athlete branding via social media: examining the
factors influencing consumer engagement on
Instagram
Jason P. Doyle, Yiran Su & Thilo Kunkel
To cite this article: Jason P. Doyle, Yiran Su & Thilo Kunkel (2022) Athlete branding via social
media: examining the factors influencing consumer engagement on Instagram, European
Sport Management Quarterly, 22:4, 506-526, DOI: 10.1080/16184742.2020.1806897
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2020.1806897
Published online: 24 Aug 2020.
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EUROPEAN SPORT MANAGEMENT QUARTERLY
2022, VOL. 22, NO. 4, 506–526
https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2020.1806897
Athlete branding via social media: examining the factors
influencing consumer engagement on Instagram
Jason P. Doyle
a
, Yiran Su
b
and Thilo Kunkel
c
a
Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Nathan,
QLD, Australia; bDepartment of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA; cSchool of Sport, Tourism
and Hospitality Management – Sport and Recreation Management, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
ABSTRACT
ARTICLE HISTORY
Research Question: Social media platforms provide opportunities
for athletes to promote their personal brands and attract
engagement from consumers. Through this research, we
examined the factors that influence social media engagement
(likes and comments) with athlete content on Instagram.
Research Methods: We monitored the posting habits of every MLS
player with a public Instagram profile over a one-month period. In
total, 1727 Instagram posts from 289 male professional athletes
were included in the study. Drawing upon self-presentation
theory, the Model of Athlete Brand Image, and relationship
marketing, each post was dummy coded according to its content
type and the overarching marketing orientation reflected by the
characteristics of the post.
Results and Findings: Results from ANOVA and hierarchical
regression tests indicated the Athletic Performance content type
attracted higher rates of consumer engagement than other
content types. Posts containing good quality photos, and the
athlete’s teammates positively influenced engagement rates;
whereas including hashtags negatively influenced engagement.
Implications: Overall, this research extends knowledge surrounding
athlete branding via social media and supports that impression
management adopting a relationship marketing approach
facilitates improved consumer engagement. Through this research
we develop the Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media, which
athletes and sport professionals can use to guide their social
media strategy.
Received 14 August 2019
Accepted 4 August 2020
KEYWORDS
Athlete branding; selfpresentation theory; social
media; relationship
marketing
Introduction
Athletes attract significant interest from the public, and this interest can then be leveraged
to build highly recognizable athlete brands (Arai et al., 2013, 2014; Carlson & Donavan,
2013). Consumer perceptions of athlete brands are influenced by the information surrounding athletes, including the athlete’s own brand management and self-presentation
(Walsh & Williams, 2017). Athletes who possess favorable brands are positioned to
command increased wages and transfer fees (Parmentier & Fischer, 2012), obtain
CONTACT Jason P. Doyle
jason.doyle@griffith.edu.au
Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management,
Griffith Business School, Glyn Davis Building N72 0.40, Nathan Campus, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
© 2020 European Association for Sport Management
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sponsorship and endorsement deals to supplement their salary earnings (Hasaan et al.,
2018), and enjoy further opportunities post-retirement (Hasaan et al., 2019). One key platform athletes use to build strong and distinctive brands is social media, which has given
athletes a means to engage consumers and gain widespread exposure. In fact, examining
fan engagement on social media is seen as a key concern of sport practitioners (Kunkel &
Biscaia, 2020).
Social media is arguably the most important branding tool available to athletes (e.g. Abeza
et al., 2013; Abeza et al., 2015; Abeza et al., 2017; Filo et al., 2015). Athletes use social media to
promote their personal and sponsor brands (Ballouli & Hutchinson, 2012; Geurin, 2017;
Kunkel et al., 2020; Pegoraro, 2010; Pegoraro & Jinnah, 2012) and to build relationships
with consumers (Abeza et al., 2013; Geurin, 2017). The strength of these relationships may
be influenced by how athletes present their social media content toconsumers (cf., Kietzmann
et al., 2011). According to Goffman’s (1959) theory of self-presentation, individuals attempt
to strategically manage how others perceive them by selectively emphasizing those elements
of their careers or characteristics with which they would like to be associated and for which
they would like to be known. Known as impression management, research demonstrates
that athletes engage in this behaviour via their social media profiles (e.g. Geurin-Eagleman
& Burch, 2016; Lebel & Danylchuk, 2014; Smith & Sanderson, 2015), however further opportunities exist to determine what factors impact athletes’ efforts in leveraging their relationship
with consumers on social media (Na et al., 2020).
In this research, we develop the Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media, which simultaneously captures the impact of a social media post’s content type (e.g. the content
depicted in a social media post), and marketing orientation (e.g. the positioning and
associated attributes attached to the post) on consumer engagement. In the social
media context, liking and commenting on posts represent two of the most common
ways that users can engage with athlete content. Both types of engagement provide feedback to the athlete and improve the reach and visibility of the athlete’s post. For this
reason, assessing consumer engagement rates represents one critical way of evaluating
the performance of social media content (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). However,
there is presently a paucity of research focusing on the factors that influence consumer
engagement with athlete social media content (e.g. Abeza et al., 2017; Geurin, 2017;
Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016; Smith & Sanderson, 2015). In particular, research is
yet to explore how the content type and marketing orientation of athletes social media
posts influences consumer engagement.
The purpose of the current research was to explore how the content type and marketing
orientation of athlete Instagram posts collectively impact consumer engagement in the form
of likes and comments. A review of the literature synthesizing self-presentation theory and
the Model of Athlete Branding (MABI) guides the development of a conceptual Model of
Athlete Branding via Social Media and a series of hypotheses framing this examination.
Literature review
Self-presentation theory and athlete branding
The theory of self-presentation (Goffman, 1959) outlines how individuals may present
different versions of themselves to derive a positive image and elicit favourable responses
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from others. Central to the theory of self-presentation is the notion that individuals
attempt to influence how others perceive them by constructing an image through the communication of both ‘frontstage’ and ‘backstage’ content (Goffman, 1959). Whereas frontstage content is constructed to align with the version of the self the individual wishes to
project, backstage content is typically more relaxed and less filtered (Smith & Sanderson,
2015). Consequently, frontstage content is more closely aligned with one’s public or
expected persona than is backstage content, which is more closely aligned to the individual’s personal life (Lebel & Danylchuk, 2014).
Researchers have drawn upon Goffman’s (1959) theoretical framework to study how
athletes self-present in various contexts, including face-to-face interactions (e.g. Podlog
et al., 2013), via mass media (e.g. Krane et al., 2010), and more recently via social
media (e.g. Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016; Lebel & Danylchuk, 2014; Smith & Sanderson, 2015). Scholars define athlete-based frontstage content as self-presentation depicting
the athlete engaging in their chosen sport, whereas backstage content presents the athlete
in personal settings. Smith and Sanderson’s (2015) research into how athletes use Instagram revealed athletes were more likely to post non-sport content (e.g. backstage
content – 77% of posts) than sport-related content. In a similar study, Geurin-Eagleman
and Burch (2016) identified that Olympic athletes were more likely to post backstage
content than frontstage content on their Instagram accounts. Whereas frontstage
content attracted a greater number of likes, backstage content attracted a greater
number of comments (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016).
From a personal branding perspective, self-presentation is used to construct a marketable self-image encompassing skills, characteristics, and personal values, which help individuals to positively position themselves in an increasingly competitive world (Shepherd,
2005). The various dimensions of athlete brands, such as on-field attributes and off-field
attributes, impact how consumers connect with the athlete and related entities, such as the
athlete’s team or sponsor (Kunkel et al., 2020). To better understand the key components
of athlete brands, Arai and colleagues (2013, 2014) developed the MABI, which outlines
how athlete brands are a cumulative result of how they are perceived in both frontstage
and backstage settings. The MABI specifically posits that consumer perceptions of
athlete brands are influenced by perceptions related to an athlete’s: (1) Athletic Performance, (2) Attractive Appearance, and (3) Marketable Lifestyle.
Athletic Performance reflects elements that relate to an athlete’s on-field characteristics.
As the main persona of an athlete is to perform to the best of their ability, Athletic Performance perceptions are important in establishing an athlete’s brand image, helping
them gain awareness and acting as a point of differentiation from other athletes (Pegoraro
et al., 2018). With respect to Goffman’s (1959) theory of self-presentation, Athletic Performance content conceptually reflects an element of frontstage performance that is consistent with their expected persona. In the social media context, an athlete posting a photo
of them competing (e.g. a tennis player competing in a tournament) reflects self-presentation via frontstage content within the Athletic Performance domain.
Attractive Appearance reflects content showcasing an athlete’s physical attributes and
characteristics. Similar to sport teams that leverage their logos, colours, and nicknames
to positively differentiate and brand themselves (Kunkel, Doyle, et al., 2016), individual
athletes may promote their physical features or symbols (e.g. distinguishing tattoos) to
stand out from other athletes (Kunkel et al., 2020). Within self-presentation theory
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(Goffman, 1959), Attractive Appearance content is primarily associated with backstage
content. In the social media context, an athlete uploading a picture of their new hairstyle
or muscular physique is representative of self-presentation drawing upon backstage
content and the Attractive Appearance domain.
Marketable Lifestyle describes associations linked to the athlete’s off-field characteristics. Marketable Lifestyle content highlights how athletes act and interact with fans in
their personal life and in other instances when they are not participating in a sportrelated activity (Arai et al., 2014). Within self-presentation theory (Goffman, 1959), Marketable Lifestyle content conceptually represents backstage content. In the social media
context, athletes sharing pictures of themselves in personal settings (e.g. the athlete in a
new car) or engaging in community work (e.g. visiting children at a school) are examples
of leveraging backstage content and the Marketable Lifestyle domain. Collectively, the
theory of self-presentation and the MABI domains provide a lens to further examine
the type of content athletes may choose to publicise via social media.
Relationship marketing on social media
Relationship marketing focuses on long-term outcomes and includes consumer interaction as part of an ongoing process. This approach lies in contrast with the transactional
approach, where the brand focuses on the immediate exchange (Grönroos, 2017). The
relationship marketing approach enables brands to build loyal customer bases and
enjoy long-term profitability (Egan, 2011; Grönroos, 2017). In the digital era, social
media platforms are a vital relationship marketing tool facilitating ongoing communication between two or more parties (Hambrick & Kang, 2015). Sport researchers have
applied relationship marketing to explore how sport organizations engage with consumers
across various contexts (Huettermann et al., 2019). For instance, Yoshida (2017) argued
that the extent to which sport organizations invest in developing quality relationships
with their consumers influences the overall evaluations that consumers’ attach to their
experiences with the organization. Similarly, other research outlines specifically how
relationship quality positively influences the media consumption activities of sport consumers (Kim et al., 2011; Kim & Trail, 2011).
With respect to personal branding, existing research guided by self-presentation theory
(Goffman, 1959) has recognized the effectiveness of social media in building athlete-consumer relationships (e.g. Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016; Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018).
However, little scholarly attention has been directed towards uncovering how social
media platforms are changing athlete self-presentation practices. Critically, previous
research has not thoroughly examined all content types athletes may post to social
media, nor the influence of different marketing orientations on consumer engagement.
For example, previous work has found that athletes only feature in approximately twothirds of the posts they upload to Instagram (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016), with
content not depicting the athlete being excluded from analyses within prior research
(Smith & Sanderson, 2015). This type of content reflects a critical component of self-promotion that is generally not applicable in the offline context but is relevant in online settings. In an online setting, pictures not directly depicting the athlete can also be utilized as
a relationship marketing tool. In this regard, social media has challenged our knowledge of
self-presentation that is grounded in Goffman’s (1959) seminal work.
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Based on the above, we posit that athletes can leverage ‘offstage’ content alongside
frontstage and backstage content as part of their online branding strategy. Specifically,
we conceptualize posts that do not centre on depicting the athlete as offstage content.
This type of content may include an athlete posting a humorous piece of text or an aspirational quote that does not include the physical presence of the athlete, emphasizing neither
the professional (e.g. frontstage) nor the personal (e,g., backstage) component of the athlete’s brand. This conceptualization is supported by scholars noting that personal branding
on social media is moving towards developing aspirational and authentic content that goes
beyond one’s professional life or personal life (cf. Audrezet et al., 2018). Offstage content,
however, is not presently covered by self-presentation theory (Goffman, 1959), nor does it
fit into the existing MABI categories (Arai et al., 2014). This new category of offstage
content within the present study represents a form of self-promotion unique to the
social media environment and one which is yet to be considered by previous research.
In addition to this new content type, we further conceptualize that the marketing orientation of a social media post can be determined based on assessing the relationship marketing concepts of teammates, photo quality, hashtags, and sponsor-related posts. More
specifically, the integration of these aspects reflects a marketing orientation of either
relationship enhancement or relationship exploitation. Athletes can enhance the consumer relationship by adding value to their online content, which itself can be accomplished
by improving the visual presentation of their posts (via enhancing the quality of their
photos) or by involving value co-creators like teammates in their posts (e.g. Burton
et al., 2017; Kolyperas et al., 2019; Woratschek et al., 2014). In contrast, athletes may
undertake an exploitative approach to their social media activities and design their
posts primarily to generate benefits for themselves (Egan, 2011). Such relationship exploitation strategies are normally based on monetizing consumer relationships (Heller Baird &
Parasnis, 2011) and may consist of athletes including hashtags or sponsor products within
their posts (Ballouli & Hutchinson, 2010). Whilst athletes often use both approaches, to
date, little empirical evidence exists to contrast how various marketing orientations
impact consumer engagement with athlete content on social media.
Theoretical model and hypothesis development
Given the above, we propose the Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media, which takes
into account how consumers’ social media engagement is influenced by the type of content
and overall marketing orientation incorporated into athletes’ posts (See Figure 1). Within
this research, consumer engagement refers to an ‘individual’s participation in and connection with an organization’s offerings and/ or organizational activities, which either the customer or the organization initiate’ (Vivek et al., 2012, p. 127). Whereas consumer
engagement via social media can consist of a variety of forms (e.g. likes, comments and
shares), for the purposes of this research we delimit our conceptualization of consumer
engagement to behavioural reactions to content in the form of likes and comments (e.g.
Barger et al., 2016), which are widely used in sport management research as indicators
of social media consumer engagement (e.g. Na et al., 2020).
We propose that athletes utilize four types of content (Athletic Performance, Attractive
Appearance, Marketable Lifestyle, and Offstage Content) to self-present their brands and
engage consumers on social media. To compare the effectiveness of each type of content,
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Figure 1. The Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media.
we used offstage content as the baseline. This is because it is beneficial to compare this
previously overlooked new category with the existing MABI framework. While the existing MABI categories are directly related to the athlete, offstage content is less focused on
the athlete, and thus reflects a less strategic approach to brand building (e.g. Geurin, 2017).
As such, this type of content should yield less consumer engagement than frontstage and
backstage content (e.g. Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). In addition, the marketing
orientation of athlete posts can be conceptualized broadly through a relationship marketing lens as either primarily enhancing the consumer relationship (e.g. adding value to the
experience of following the athlete) or primarily exploiting the consumer relationship (e.g.
encouraging the consumer to purchase a sponsor’s product) (e.g. Bee & Kahle, 2006;
Yoshida, 2017). As well as deciding what type of content to post, athlete posts may also
include their teammates, vary in terms of their picture quality, include sponsor messaging,
and contain hashtags. However, the effect of these factors on consumer engagement has
not been explored in the existing literature. The type of content and these presentational
factors are expected to affect consumer engagement and guide the development of our
hypotheses, now discussed.
Athletic performance
Research has demonstrated the utility of Athletic Performance posts in establishing athlete
brands. For example, Lebel and Danylchuk (2014) illustrated that consumers prefer athlete
Twitter profile pictures that reference and depict elements of the athlete’s sport. Similar
findings demonstrate that users are more likely to share images of athletes engaging in athletic pursuits, rather than in other scenarios, during the staging of sporting events (Pegoraro et al., 2018). Furthermore, Geurin-Eagleman and Burch (2016) found that Instagram
posts showing athletes engaging in training or competition were the second-most frequent
type of content that their sample of Olympic athletes posted to Instagram. Thus, posting
Athletic Performance-related content can be considered a strategic brand-building initiative (Arai et al., 2013, 2014). Consequently, we propose the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: Social media content highlighting an athlete’s Athletic Performance will attract
significantly higher rates of engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments
when compared to Offstage content.
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Attractive appearance
Previous studies outline that attractive communicators are liked more than others and
have a positive effect on perceptions surrounding the products or services to which they
are associated (Ohanian, 1990; 1991). Geurin-Eagleman and Burch (2016) demonstrated
the appeal of Attractive Appearance content to consumers, finding that images depicting
an athlete’s physical attractiveness achieved significantly more engagement than other
content types. For these reasons, athletes posting content reflecting their Attractive
Appearance may be considered a strategic approach to brand development (Arai et al.,
2013, 2014). Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 2: Social media content highlighting an athlete’s Attractive Appearance will
attract significantly higher rates of engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments when compared to Offstage content.
Marketable lifestyle
Researchers have demonstrated that athletes can positively reposition and differentiate their
brands based on publicizing their involvement in philanthropic pursuits (Kunkel, Scott,
et al., 2016). More recently, Geurin (2017) identified that athletes consider being able to
share insights into their personal life as a key benefit of social media. For these reasons, athletes posting content representing their broader Marketable Lifestyle can be considered strategic in nature (Arai et al., 2013, 2014). Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 3: Social media content highlighting an athlete’s Marketable Lifestyle will attract
significantly higher rates of engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments
when compared to Offstage content.
Relationship enhancement tactic: teammates
Previous research examining the influence of athlete social media content types on consumer
engagement has revealed interesting insights but is yet to consider the effect of including teammates in posts (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016; Smith & Sanderson, 2015). This work has
predominantly focused on athletes engaged in individual sports, providing an opportunity
to examine athletes from team sport settings. Based on an understanding of brand architecture
(Kunkel et al., 2013), individuals who follow an athlete on social media may also follow the
athlete’s team and teammates. Additionally, as athletes represent related sub-brands within
the portfolio of the team brand (Kunkel & Biscaia, 2020), consumer evaluations of athlete
brands may be influenced by spill-over effects introduced by teammates. From a relationship
marketing perspective, teammates serve as value co-creators (cf. Burton et al., 2017). Therefore,
the inclusion of teammates reflects a co-branding tactic which may enhance the athlete-consumer relationship. Therefore, the following hypotheses are presented:
Hypothesis 4: Social media content featuring an athlete’s teammates will have a significant
positive relationship with engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments.
Relationship enhancement tactic: picture quality
Social media posts containing images can vary in terms of quality (Smith & Sanderson,
2015). Geurin-Eagleman and Burch (2016) proposed that athletic apparel brands who
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post user-generated content may select which content to post based on quality considerations. Whilst Geurin-Eagleman and Burch (2016) did not specifically account for picture
quality, they suggested brands may have a preference to post high-quality images. From a
relationship marketing perspective, high-quality images indicate branding efforts in
enhancing the relationship between athletes and consumers. Therefore, the quality of
the picture posted is expected to positively influence consumer engagement. Based on
this, we propose the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 5: Improving the photo quality used across social media content will have a significant positive relationship with engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments.
Relationship exploitation tactic: sponsor-related posts
Promoting sponsors represents one key motivation for athletes to use social media (Geurin,
2017). Such posts may either be labelled as sponsored content or feature the athlete promoting the brand in a less direct manner. Research demonstrates that online engagement is predicated on consumers perceiving authenticity within the online content they view
(Pronschinske et al., 2012). Thus, when athletes post sponsor-related content, consumers
may perceive these posts reflect transactional marketing aimed to benefit the athlete and
brand, rather than a reflection of relationship marketing aiming to add value to the consumer experience (e.g. Hambrick & Kang, 2015; Williams & Chinn, 2010). Therefore, it is
expected that posts focusing on an athlete’s sponsors will have a negative impact on consumer engagement. Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 6: Social media content highlighting sponsor-related content will have a significant
negative relationship with engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments.
Relationship exploitation tactic: hashtags
Hashtags can be placed in a post’s caption as a form of collating information for users who
may be searching for information or products. For example, the hashtag #Arsenal may be
used on posts featuring or related to Arsenal Football Club. Hashtags may also be used to
encourage users to upload athlete-related photos (Pegoraro et al., 2018). Geurin-Eagleman
and Burch (2016) found that including hashtags led to a slight, yet significant decrease in
the amount of likes and comments an athlete’s post received, and this effect increased as
the number of hashtags included increased. This suggests that consumers perceive tagged
content as trying to stimulate a transaction rather than engaging the consumer in a
relationship (e.g. Hambrick & Kang, 2015; Williams & Chinn, 2010), reflecting a relationship exploitation approach. Consequently, the following hypotheses are proposed:
Hypothesis 7: Social media content descriptions featuring hashtags will have a significant
negative relationship with engagement in the form of consumer a) likes and b) comments.
Method
Research context
Building on previous work examining Olympic sport contexts (Geurin, 2017; GeurinEagleman & Burch, 2016), we focused on a professional sport environment. We
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specifically focused on athletes from a lesser-known, yet growing league, as these athletes
earn comparatively modest salaries and must place an increased emphasis on brand building via social media (Geurin-Eagleman & Clavio, 2015). We focused our study on athletes
from America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) as it is a relatively new league in comparison
to its main competitors and is growing both in terms of consumer interest and availability.
The league has invested in expansion in recent seasons and industry research predicts
there are now approximately 80 million soccer fans residing in North America
(Thomas, 2019).
In 2018, the average annual salary in the MLS ($67,500) was substantially lower than
the mean salaries commanded by athletes across America’s ‘big four’ men’s leagues –
the National Football League ($480,000), the National Hockey League ($650,000),
Major League Baseball ($545,000), and the National Basketball Association ($815,615)
respectively. Thus, we considered MLS athletes an appropriate sample for the purpose
of this study.
Social media platform
We chose to focus this research on the Instagram platform for two main reasons. First,
Instagram is a popular, image-based branding platform that has been widely adopted
by sport organizations (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2018) and athletes (Hayes et al., 2020).
Instagram is favoured as a branding tool because it has over one billion monthly users
(Aslam, 2019) and attracts the highest engagement of all social media platforms (Leone,
2018). Second, Instagram represents an important platform for athlete branding, with
sport management scholars advocating for further research into the platform (GeurinEagleman & Burch, 2016; Lebel & Danylchuk, 2014; Pegoraro et al., 2018). Given the
above, we deemed that Instagram provided an appropriate social media platform for
this study and a suitable means to test our hypotheses.
Procedure and data analysis
We collected data from every MLS athlete who possessed a publicly available Instagram
profile (N = 289) at the time of data collection. Each profile was monitored for a period
of one month, whereby each post made during this time was included in our analyses.
The time period was in the middle of the MLS season (September) to capture a time
when athletes are most active in using social media. To identify each profile, we first compiled a list of athletes on each MLS team roster (N = 540) by visiting official team websites.
Next, we entered each athlete’s name alongside the keyword ‘Instagram’ into a separate
Google search. From this process, we were able to identify 289 public profiles assigned
to MLS athletes. These 289 MLS athletes formed the sample of our research, and collectively represented 53.5% of all active MLS athletes.
During the one-month data collection period, the athletes collectively posted 1727 pictures to Instagram. All of the athletes posted at least once during the data collection period,
and the frequency of posting ranged from one post to nineteen posts per athlete. Some
athletes were more active than others, with 12 athletes accounting for 10% of all posts.
Thus, we compared the engagement of the most active athletes to the rest of the sample
and did not identify significant differences (Likes M10% = 6.64%; M90% = 6.91%; t(1723)
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= −1.655, p = .098; Comments M10% = .16%; M90% = .17%; t(1723) = −0.455, p = .649). We
began our analyses one week after the conclusion of the one-month observation period.
Consistent with previous research, coding was conducted with the aid of a codebook
that was developed to capture information relevant to test our hypotheses (e.g. GeurinEagleman & Burch, 2016). We first coded the posts based upon the content type to
determine whether the primary content type reflected Athletic Performance, Attractive
Appearance, Marketable Lifestyle, or Offstage content. Next, we coded each post to
reflect if teammates were in the picture or not, the quality of the photo (poor, good,
or professional), the number of hashtags attributed to the post, and whether or not
the post was sponsored. A post was considered sponsored if it was either designated
as such by Instagram (e.g. a paid sponsorship) or if the athlete posted a photo where
the brand was the primary focus. Finally, we assessed the number of likes and comments each post attracted to determine engagement ratios. Engagement ratios were calculated by dividing the number of interactions (e.g. likes and comments) each post
attracted by the number of followers the athlete’s account had at the time of the
research.
Two trained coders conducted the content analysis over two rounds. Before the first
round, the researchers met and discussed potential content codes based on the existing
literature. In the first round, all posts were coded independently. While many qualitative
studies establish intercoder reliability between the coders on a sub-sample of the data and
then independently code the remaining data (e.g. Geurin & Burch, 2017), there are drawbacks with these indexes as even recommended thresholds can yield a high error rate (Perreault & Leigh, 1989). Therefore, instead of only comparing codes of a sub-sample, in the
second round, the coders identified similarities and differences in their coding. To avoid
reliability concerns and ensure high-quality input data, the coders reviewed and compared
each post together. All posts with discrepancies were discussed until the coders reached
complete consensus on the codes of that post. This process ensured that the codes were
attributed independently and unanimously agreed on by both coders (e.g. Wimmer &
Dominick, 2013).
Data were entered into SPSS 25. Descriptive data and dummy variables that indicated
the presence (1) or absence (0) of each category were created. One-way ANOVA tests were
used to assess the consumer engagement rates elicited by the MABI and offstage content
types. Games-Howell’s multiple comparisons post-hoc tests were conducted to compare
mean differences among the groups with unequal sample sizes (Field, 2013). Subsequently,
hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. We followed a step-wise
approach to improve the standard regression estimate by adding a second-stage regression
in an ordinary model to calculate the change in the explained variance (R 2) (Aiken &
West, 1991). In Step 1, we added the three MABI categories. The Offstage category
served as the baseline category. In Step 2, we added the relationship enhancement factors –
teammates and picture quality. To examine the influence of picture quality, the professional quality category served as the baseline category. In Step 3, we added the identified
relationship exploitation factors – sponsored content and hashtags. The sequence was
determined by the conceptual model, where we propose that athletes intentionally
enhance the relationship to leverage potential branding benefits. The contribution of
each step was tested by conducting F-tests.
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Results
Applying the above procedures to our coding, we found that of the 1727 pictures, 30.2%
reflected Athletic Performance, 12% depicted Attractive Appearance, and 30.8% were
representative of the athlete’s Marketable Lifestyle. The remaining 27% of the pictures
did not depict the athlete nor align with the MABI categories, and subsequently were
deemed to reflect Offstage content. With respect to consumer engagement, we found Athletic Performance content attracted the highest engagement rates of the examined MABI
categories. In particular, the ANOVA results with Games-Howell post-hoc tests demonstrated that Athletic Performance content elicited significantly more consumer engagement than the Attractive Appearance, Marketable Lifestyle, and Offstage content
categories with respect to both likes (F (3, 1723) = 12.664; p < .001; effect size = 0.319)
and comments (F (3, 1723) = 4.108; p < .001; effect size = 0.223). No significant differences
existed between the Attractive Appearance, Marketable Lifestyle and Offstage categories.
Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1.
Results of the hierarchical regression analyses further examined the conceptualized
relationship enhancement and relationship exploitation variables attributed to the posts.
Results pertaining to the influence of teammates, photo quality, sponsor-related content
and hashtags are presented in Table 2. The correlations between the indicator variables
are presented in Table 3 and show that multi-collinearity was not problematic as correlations were below the recommended threshold of .80 (Kline, 2011).
Table 2 shows that Athletic Performance was a significant positive predictor of the likes
and comments in all three models, supporting Hypotheses 1a&b. Attractive Appearance
and Marketable Lifestyle content did not possess significantly different like or comment
engagement ratios than the Offstage content. Therefore, Hypotheses 2a&b and Hypotheses
3a&b were not supported. Posts containing an athlete’s teammates positively influenced
likes, but not comments. As such, Hypothesis 4a was supported, but Hypothesis 4b
was not supported. Photo quality significantly predicted likes, but not as anticipated –
the ‘good quality’ category attracted significantly more likes than the ‘poor quality’
and ‘professional quality’ posts. There were no significant relationships reported with
respect to photo quality and comments. Consequently, Hypotheses 5a&b were not supported. Sponsor-related content was also not significantly related to likes or comments,
Table 1. Descriptive statistics.
Dummy variable (1= Yes; 0 = No)
Frequency
Percent
Likes ratio (Mean)
Comments ratio (Mean)
Athletic Performance
Attractive Appearance
Marketable Lifestyle
Offstage Content
Photo Quality – Poor
Photo Quality – Good
Photo Quality – Professional
Teammates
Sponsor-related Content
521
208
532
466
190
764
773
516
150
30.2%
12.0%
30.8%
27.0%
11.0%
44.2%
44.8%
29.9%
8.7%
0.0790
0.0636
0.0638
0.0638
0.0665
0.0718
0.0655
0.0782
0.0575
0.0022
0.0018
0.0016
0.0018
0.0016
0.0019
0.0019
0.0020
0.0020
Continuous Variable
Mean
SD
Min
Max
Number of Hashtags
1.530
2.028
0
16
Note: Engagement ratios represent the amount of likes and comments a post receives divided by the number of followers
attached to the athlete’s account.
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Table 2. Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting ratio likes and ratio
comments (N = 1727).
Likes ratio
Model 1
Model 2
Comments ratio
Model 3
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Athletic Performance
0.147**
0.143**
0.149**
0.075**
0.080**
0.090**
Attractive Appearance
−0.001
−0.004
−0.008
0.005
0.003
−0.008
Marketable Lifestyle
0.000
−0.002
−0.008
−0.018
−0.022
−0.024
Photo Quality – Poor
0.042
0.032
−0.006
−0.010
Photo Quality – Good
0.106**
0.097**
0.038
0.033
Teammates
0.091**
0.090**
−0.001
0.003
Sponsored Content
−0.028
0.038
Number of Hashtags
−0.152**
−0.086**
0.022
0.040
0.063
0.007
0.009
0.017
R2
0.020
0.036
0.059
0.005
0.005
0.012
Adjusted R2
F-value
12.657**
11.842**
14.552**
4.101**
2.493*
3.665**
2
.018
0.024
0.001
0.008
ΔR
10.810**
21.821**
0.887
7.088**
F for ΔR2
Note: Number of Hashtags was centred at its mean. Standardized regression coefficients are reported in columns marked
Model 1, Model 2, and Model 3. *p < .05. **p < .01. ‘Offstage Content’ and ‘Photo Quality – Professional’ were treated as
the baseline variables to which the remaining dummy variables of their respective category were compared.
despite the mean score for likes including sponsored content attracting less engagement
compared to the mean score of all pictures. Therefore, Hypotheses 6a&b were not supported. The number of hashtags included on a post reported a significant and negative
relationship with both likes and comments, supporting Hypotheses 7a&b. The contribution of each step in explaining the variance of likes was significant for each model,
and the contribution from Model 2 to Model 3 in explaining the variance of comments
was also significant. These results indicate that factors related with relationship enhancement and relationship exploitation uniquely explained the variance of our dependent
variables (Lewis, 2007).
Discussion
The purpose of this research was to examine how athletes’ self-presentation on social
media impacts consumer engagement. More specifically, we developed and tested the
Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media and explored how the content type and marketing orientation of athlete Instagram posts impacted consumer engagement in the form
of likes and comments. The sample was derived from all of the athletes from a men’s professional sport league who were active on Instagram (N = 289). This approach extended
existing research that has thus far relied on limited sample sizes (Geurin-Eagleman &
Burch, 2016; Smith & Sanderson, 2015) to provide a more holistic investigation both
theoretically and statistically. By integrating the theory of self-presentation (Goffman,
1959) with the MABI (Arai et al., 2013, 2014) and relationship marketing, we demonstrate
that athletes use a range of self-presentation tactics on social media and that the content
type and marketing orientation of athlete posts both impact consumer engagement rates.
These findings answer calls from the literature to add to extant knowledge surrounding
athlete social media use (e.g. Abeza et al., 2015; Filo et al., 2015) and athlete brand development tactics (Walsh & Williams, 2017).
We advance three main contributions to the sport management literature. First, this
research contributes to knowledge surrounding athlete branding by conceptualizing the
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J. P. DOYLE ET AL.
Table 3. Correlations between predictor variables.
Athletic
Performance
Attractive
Appearance
Marketable
Lifestyle
Photo Quality
Poor
Photo Quality
Good
Teammates
Sponsored
Content
Number of
Hashtags
Athletic Performance
1.000
Attractive
−0.243**
1.000
Appearance
Marketable Lifestyle
−0.439**
−0.247**
1.000
Photo Quality – Poor
−0.126**
0.080**
0.030
1.000
Photo Quality – Good
−0.202**
0.068**
0.146**
−0.313*
1.000
Teammates
0.312**
−0.098**
−0.189**
−0.048*
0.004
1.000
Sponsored Content
−0176**
0.189**
0.017
0.003
0.027
−0.125**
1.000
Number of Hashtags
0.111**
−0.069**
−0.062*
−0.051*
−0.062*
0.042
0.040*
1.000
*p ≤ .05; **p ≤ .01; ‘Offstage Content’ and ‘Photo Quality – Professional’ are not included in this table because they were treated as the baseline variables in the regression, to which the remaining
dummy variables of their respective category were compared. Correlations of dummy-coded variables represent the correlations between the total number of each category with the overall
sample, not the correlation between the individual variables.
EUROPEAN SPORT MANAGEMENT QUARTERLY
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Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media. This model builds on previous work by
accounting for not only the type of content that an athlete may post but also for the marketing orientation of the post (Arai et al., 2013, 2014; Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016;
Pegoraro et al., 2018; Smith & Sanderson, 2015). By adjusting Goffman’s (1959) framework to the online environment, we demonstrate how athletes can manage their brands
using frontstage and backstage presentations as well as via presenting offstage content.
Consistent with prior work (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016; Smith & Sanderson,
2015), we found that a large number of posts (27%) were not reflective of athletes’ Athletic
Performance, Attractive Appearance, or Marketable Lifestyle, and thus were not aligned
with previous conceptualizations of frontstage or backstage content (Goffman, 1959). In
contrast to previous work excluding this content (Smith & Sanderson, 2015), we included
it in our analyses reflecting the offstage content category. By integrating the theory of selfpresentation (Goffman, 1959) and the MABI (Arai et al., 2013, 2014), we demonstrate that
the existing MABI reflects frontstage and backstage content but does not currently account
for content that is not directly related to, or depictive of, the athlete. Consequently, we
identify offstage content as a theoretical component of athlete branding that is particularly
relevant in the online social media setting and demonstrate the relevance of the Model of
Athlete Branding via Social Media to account for this content type. The introduction of
offstage content as a new concept to the social media literature contributes to a holistic
understanding of athlete branding within social media environments where most
athlete-consumer interactions are asynchronous.
Second, we identified the influence of various content types on consumer engagement.
Our findings demonstrate that different content types attract varying rates of consumer
engagement, supporting research on how sport teams (e.g. Agrawal et al., 2018; Anagnostopoulos et al., 2018) and general sport brands (Geurin & Burch, 2017) use social media.
We extend this work to the athlete context and demonstrate that Athletic Performance
content generated higher rates of consumer engagement in the form of both likes and
comments than Offstage content, whereas Attractive Appearance and Marketable Lifestyle
did not outperform offstage content. To an extent, our findings are consistent with previous research, which has found that athlete posts reflective of their athletic life are
more popular (Pegoraro et al., 2018) and attract more likes on average than other
content types (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). These results are also consistent with
research on sporting goods brands which found posts with an obvious brand-focus
elicit higher rates of Instagram engagement (Geurin & Burch, 2017). Researchers have previously suggested athletes should post social media content that aligns with their brand
image (Geurin, 2017) and it appears in this case, consumers were more likely to engage
with content reflective of an athlete’s core persona. Interestingly, findings showed that
Offstage content attracted similar engagement rates to Attractive Appearance and Marketable Lifestyle content, which supports its relevance and inclusion in social media research
focused on athlete branding.
Third, we forward knowledge pertaining to how relationship marketing operates within
the sport context (Abeza et al., 2013; Bee & Kahle, 2006; Yoshida, 2017). Previous work has
evidenced the impact of relationship quality perceptions on consumers’ team media
content preferences (Kim et al., 2011; Kim & Trail, 2011). We demonstrated relationship
enhancement attributes have a positive relationship with consumer engagement, and that
relationship exploitation attributes have a negative relationship with consumer
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J. P. DOYLE ET AL.
engagement (e.g. Yoshida, 2017) in the context of social media. In particular, we found
that posts including one or more teammates acted as a catalyst to increase likes. This is
likely due to the additional reach benefits that this approach offers and also given such
posts provide an additional point of attachment for consumers (Kunkel et al., 2013).
Thus, we extend existing research (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016) by demonstrating
the presence of teammates elicits higher rates of consumer engagement via likes.
We also demonstrated that picture quality influenced consumer engagement, albeit not
as hypothesized. Geurin and Burch (2017) speculated that sport brands may evaluate
which user-generated content to repost based on photo quality criteria. We found that
good quality photos generally outperformed both poor-quality photos and professional
images. This is likely tied in with our finding that the inclusion of hashtags had a significant negative relationship with consumer engagement for both likes and comments, as per
previous research (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). Given relationship marketing is predicated on building relationships with customers, rather than facilitating a transaction
with a customer, the use of hashtags and professional pictures may be perceived as
inauthentic by consumers (e.g. Hambrick & Kang, 2015; Williams & Chinn, 2010). Our
work supports previous research illustrating the importance of authenticity in scholarship
examining how sport teams can attract new likes on Facebook (Pronschinske et al., 2012)
and extend this to both the Instagram and individual-athlete contexts.
These factors related to the inclusion of teammates, picture quality, and sponsored
content have not been statistically tested in prior research and thus provide enhanced
direction to guide how athletes use social media. Namely, our findings indicate that athletes will reap consumer engagement benefits if they include teammates when possible,
avoid the use of hashtags in their captions, use quality (but not professional) images,
are transparent when promoting sponsors, and mainly post content that is representative
of their Athletic Performance. We do not suggest that athletes post only Athletic Performance content, as engagement rates have been previously attributed to athletes posting
diverse content (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016), and posting philanthropic content
can help athletes create diversified brands (Kunkel, Scott, et al., 2016). Based on the
present findings, athletes are suggested to post content mainly indicative of their Athletic
Performance when volume of engagement is important (e.g. if they want to demonstrate
they have appropriate reach and engagement abilities).
Emerging athletes should use these findings to enhance their social media channels as
branding tools. For example, an MLS rookie should craft an Instagram profile that mainly
depicts his Athletic Performance but also demonstrates aspects of his personal life and
broader interests. Including more established teammates in posts (e.g. designated
players) will also help broaden the appeal and authenticity attached to his own brand.
Additionally, our research suggests that athletes should post content integrating their
sponsors into performance-related imagery when fulfilling contractual obligations to
facilitate increased engagement from their followers.
Limitations and future research
We discuss four future directions to advance this research. First, our examination focused
on a single sport league catering exclusively to male athletes. Further work spanning
diverse sport settings encompassing individual sports (e.g. boxing), athletes at different
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life-cycle stages (e.g. collegiate athletes), and in a variety of countries is needed to test the
generalizability of our findings. More importantly, additional research should focus on
women’s sport as prior work has shown that male and female athletes may use social
media differently (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016), and that female athletes face
enhanced challenges as they engage in brand building initiatives (Geurin, 2017; Lobpries
et al., 2018). Studies focused on contrasting the responses elicited from male and female
sport consumer samples are also encouraged to build on our research and add to the
growing knowledge on female sport consumption (McDonald et al., 2018; Sveinson &
Hoeber, 2015, 2016; Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018).
Second, the present research was delimited to a one-month period of athlete social
media usage only. Future research should extend this examination by conducting longitudinal research spanning an entire season (or longer) to account for potential inseason and off-season differences. Research should further examine the impact of the
posting behaviours of individual athletes to account for possible effects related to the frequency to which an athlete posts, and the timing and date of their posts. A data mining
approach (cf. Moro et al., 2016) may be beneficial to tease out the impact of these
posting behaviours, while employing mixed-methods research designs in subsequent
investigations could also provide a richer understanding of why fans do, and do not,
engage with athlete Instagram posts. Such work can also determine the salience of the
comments (e.g. positive, neutral, or negative) that athlete content attracts, a nuance not
accounted for within our work.
Third, this investigation was focused on one social media platform only. Future
research should test the generalizability of our findings across multiple social media platforms. While collecting ephemeral data is difficult, testing new platforms (e.g. Snapchat) or
specific features built into existing platforms (e.g. Instagram Stories) is encouraged as consumers appear to desire different content when they use ephemeral platforms (Wakefield
& Bennett, 2018). It is also possible that some athletes may feel more comfortable posting
certain types of content (e.g. Attractive Appearance) in the ephemeral space than in the
permanent domain. It is also likely the type of engagement solicited from consumers
through these channels could differ. In terms of engagement, our investigation only examined engagement in the form of likes and comments, yet these forms of engagement do not
represent the entire network of users who may have engaged with that content. Instead of
liking or commenting, some users may have chosen to engage by way of sharing select
posts with other Instagram users. Whilst shares are valuable as an engagement metric,
they are difficult to track via the research coding process. Future research should investigate how athletes use both ephemeral and traditional social media outlets in tandem to
further their brands. Social capital theory, previously applied to athlete entrepreneurs
(Ratten, 2015), may be beneficial to address questions related to authenticity (Audrezet
et al., 2018) and offstage content.
Fourth, we did not fully account for the impact of other brands within the athlete’s
sport brand ecosystem. Findings demonstrate the presence of an athlete’s teammates
positively impacted consumer engagement with the athlete’s content. However, other
brands connected to the athlete may also impact how Instagram users engage with
the athlete. Research has shown that the level of exposure that a league event provides
to an athlete and the number of social media followers of the team impacts the number
of followers an athlete gains when they join a new team (Su et al., 2020). Therefore,
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J. P. DOYLE ET AL.
future research should investigate how strategies at the league and team level, as well as
other brands within the sport brand ecosystem (e.g. an athlete’s national team affiliation), may impact how consumers engage with athletes on social media.
Conclusion
Through this study, we examined how the content and marketing orientation of athlete
content on social media influences consumer engagement, thereby extending our understanding of self-presentation and athlete branding in the digital era. We developed and
tested the Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media, utilizing Goffman’s (1959) theory
of self-presentation within the social media context. We utilized the MABI (Arai et al.,
2013, 2014) and adopted a relationship marketing lens to outline how athlete social
media use can be considered as either relationship enhancement or relationship exploitation given its overarching marketing orientation. We demonstrated that consumer engagement in the form of likes and comments differed based on the type of content posted and
identified other variables that had either positive (e.g. including teammates, good photo
quality) or negative (e.g. including hashtags) relationships with consumer engagement.
The present findings thus contribute to sport management theory and can help guide athletes in strategically creating, managing, and building their brands via social media.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Sport Industry Research Centre at Temple University.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
This research was supported by the Sport Industry Research Centre at Temple University.
ORCID
Jason P. Doyle http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5049-9407
Yiran Su http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9650-2798
Thilo Kunkel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1607-0148
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"Girls Just Aren't Interested": The Social Construction of Interest in Girls' Sport
Author(s): Cheryl Cooky
Source: Sociological Perspectives , Vol. 52, No. 2 (Summer 2009), pp. 259-283
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sop.2009.52.2.259
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“Girls Just aren’t Interested”:
The Social Construction
of Interest in Girls’ Sport
CHERYL COOKY
Purdue University
ABSTRACT: Given the significant increase in the number of women
and girls participating in sport, it is now a commonly held belief that
girls have ample opportunities to participate in sport and, consequently,
that girls who do not participate choose to do so because they simply lack
interest in sport. Using qualitative methodologies and the sociology of
accounts, the author examines a recreational sport program for low-income
minority girls in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Applying Giddens’s
theory of structuration to emergent themes from participant observations
and interviews, the findings illustrate how structures, as they are embodied
through the everyday interactions of their participants, simultaneously
constrain certain forms of agency while enabling other forms. This study
advances sociology’s disciplinary understanding of social construction by
illustrating how social structure and cultural discourses interact in shaping
everyday social interactions.
Keywords: structure and agency; sport; adolescent girls; social
construction; gender
“Girls just aren’t interested in sport.”
—Coach Andre, Centerville Girls Play Los Angeles (GPLA)
A dominant American ideology posits that creating new structures of opportunity or expanding existing structures, such that they are inclusive of minorities,
will increase the number of unrepresented groups in those structures. This ideology, frequently reproduced in girls’ sport (Cooky and McDonald 2005; Shakib and
Dunbar 2002), echoes the tenets of liberal political philosophy. However, increased
structures of opportunity do not necessarily lead to an increased acceptance of
minorities among dominant groups (Bonilla-Silva 2003; Messner 2002). Where this
strategy fails is in its inability to alter persisting sexist and/or racist ideologies that
often serve to legitimate institutional discrimination (Bonilla-Silva 2003).
Address correspondence to: Cheryl Cooky, Department of Health & Kinesiology, Purdue University, 800 W. Stadium
Ave., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2046; e-mail: ccooky@purdue.edu.
Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 52, Issue 2, pp. 259–284, ISSN 0731-1214, electronic ISSN 1533-8673.
© 2009 by Pacific Sociological Association. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at
http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/sop.2009.52.2.259.
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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 52, Number 2, 2009
Sport has been, and continues to be, a contested terrain wherein real and symbolic boundaries have been drawn to limit access for racial minorities, women,
gays and lesbians, and other disadvantaged members of society (Dworkin and
Messner 2002). Historically, girls and women have encountered resistance to their
participation (Cahn 1994; Hargreaves 1994). Resistance against women’s presence
in sport continues today as a result of sport’s historical foundation to teach boys
and men hegemonic masculinity during a time when their lives were becoming
increasingly “feminized”—an outcome of the dramatic changes in work, family,
and leisure during the twentieth century (Burstyn 1999). For example, in their research on male and female high school sport participation, Shakib and Dunbar
(2002) found that high school students viewed girls’ basketball as “less than” boys’
basketball and that girls’ basketball had lower social value, even though the girls’
team ranked higher than the boys’ team at this particular high school. Based on
these findings, the authors rightfully question the potential for girls’ sport participation to challenge the gender order (Shakib and Dunbar 2002).
As a result of the significant increase in the number of women and girls participating in sports over the past thirty-seven years, it is now a commonly held belief
that girls and women have ample opportunities to participate in sport and, consequently, that girls and women who do not participate choose to do so because they
simply lack interest in sport. While statistics demonstrate that girls are participating in sport in greater numbers than ever before (Carpenter and Acosta 2005),
there are still many girls who do not participate because of limited opportunities,
structural barriers, and gender ideologies (Messner 2002). As Messner (2002:xx)
argues, despite the growth of women’s sports in recent years, there remains a
“contested, but still powerful ‘center’ of sport.” This sport center continues to be
constructed by and for men (Messner 2002). In this article, I argue that in order to
assess the degree to which structures of opportunity have impacted gender equality, researchers must not simply consider the inclusion of girls and women into the
structure of sport but must more importantly consider how women and girls are
included in those structures.
Girls’ participation in the institution of sport is of significant concern for sociologists, feminists, educators, and girl advocacy groups, such as Girls Inc. and Girl
Scouts of America. This is because girls’ sport participation is linked to positive
social outcomes—for example, improved academic performance and self-esteem.
Sport can also empower girls. Indeed, youth sport groups such as the Afghan
Youth Sport Exchange encourage Afghani girls to play sport in order to empower
their lives and to challenge the oppressive gender proscriptions of the Taliban regime. Moreover, in the United States, the naturalization of gender difference has
historically served as a justification for gendered inequality in access and opportunity (Hargreaves 1994). Sport, as a bodily performance, is one of the few remaining
social institutions in our society where the ostensibly natural differences between
men and women are reproduced (Dowling 2000). Thus, girls’ and women’s participation in sport can potentially be empowering because it challenges the very
foundations upon which gender inequality is based (Messner 2002). An understanding of the social structure of sport, and the social processes that occur in that
social institution with respect to girls’ participation, has implications not only for
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“Girls Just aren’t Interested”: The Social Construction of Interest in Girls’ Sport
261
those who study sport but also for sociologists concerned with social equality and
social change, for feminists concerned with gender equality, and for educators and
advocates who wish to improve the lives of girls.
Access to sport opportunities is necessary for young girls to participate. However, many young girls, especially girls of color and girls from low-income communities, have limited sport opportunities (Sabo et al. 2004). This lack of opportunity is based on a number of factors, including lack of transportation to and from
sport activities; lack of funds to pay for equipment and registration fees; lack of
organizations that provide sport to girls in urban communities; lack of space and
facilities in urban communities; societal gender roles, which often confine girls to
the home or limit their mobility outside the home; and societal ideologies that conflate athleticism with masculinity (Sabo et al. 2004). In their summary of current
research on physical activity and sport in the lives of American girls, Sabo et al.
note that a significant barrier to girls’ full participation in sport is the sociocultural
assumption that girls “naturally” lack interest in sport (Sabo et al. 2004, emphasis
added). For girls of color, because of race, gender, and class inequalities, the essentialist assumption that girls “just aren’t interested” in sport serves as an additional
constraint.
Sport is a primary site for the study of classic sociological and feminist concerns regarding agency and structural constraint (Dworkin and Messner 2002). As
a significant social and cultural institution, sport allows sociologists to uncover
the ways in which ostensibly “objective” understandings of gender differences
are socially constructed through the complex array of dynamics between structures, cultural ideologies, and agency. More broadly, this article will explore the
social processes by which interest is socially constructed, specifically how cultural
ideologies shape social structure, how formal and informal social structures can
enable and constrain social actors, and how social actors enact various forms of
agency that can be either reproductive of, or resistant to, social structure and constraint. Qualitative analysis of a girls’ sport program for low-income, minority
girls reveals the complex dynamic between structure and culture that socially constructs girls’ interest in sport in everyday social interactions. Based on participant
observations and interviews, girls’ interest in sport is constructed, contextualized,
and understood through this complex interplay of structure, agency, and culture.
Thus, this study sheds light on the structural dynamics in sport, which will provide researchers, advocates, and educators with a thorough understanding of the
potential and limitations of liberal strategies to bring about social change.
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY IN SPORT
Theoretical debates regarding the relationship between structure and agency have
been central to the discipline of sociology since its inception. Giddens’s theories
of structuration provide linkages between structure and agency such that there
is a recursive relationship rather than a unidirectional cause and effect dynamic
(Gieryn 2000). Most sociologists today recognize the need to consider structure,
culture, and agency in our understandings of social life (Hays 1994; Messner 2002).
Indeed, debates regarding the primacy of structure or agency in sociological theory
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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 52, Number 2, 2009
are rendered insignificant when one considers how individuals constitute and are
constituted by social structure (Gieryn 2000). Fine (1992) argued for the importance of moving beyond binary theoretical discussions of structure or agency to
link structure and agency in interactionist theories—what he calls “synthetic interaction.” Fine (1992:101) writes, “I suggest that we can make interactional sense of
agents and their structures by recognizing that people act in situations on the basis
of the meanings that previous contexts of behavior have provided. These contexts
are shaped by structural forces, and, as a consequence, structures are embedded
in the meanings that contexts generate.” In other words, structures do not exist
outside of human interaction, nor do individuals act outside of structural forces
and institutions (Giddens 1984; Hays 1994; Messner 2002). Instead, structures
are constituted through ongoing collective social action, while the experiences of
social actors are constituted through structures of opportunity and constraint
(Connell 1987; Hays 1994).
Giddens (1984) recognized how power is integral in understanding the relationship between structure and agency. He argued that “dialectic of control” exists
where all individuals have some degree of power given that they are able to transform, change, or alter the circumstances in which they find themselves (Sugden and
Tomlinson 2002). Even subordinate groups have some degree of agency to counter dominant groups (Giddens 1984). On the surface it may appear that Giddens
suggests agency is always transformative or resistant. However, as Hays (1994)
argues, agency can also be reproductive of social structures. Therefore, it is useful to conceptualize agency along a continuum that ranges from transformative/
resistant to reproductive of social structures.
METHODS AND METHODOLOGY
As part of a larger research project, I conducted fieldwork on the Girls Play Los
Angeles (GPLA) recreation sport program for one sport season at two different Los
Angeles recreation centers. Field observations at each recreation center began in
January 2004 and ended in April 2004, the end of the sport season (fieldwork was
conducted concurrently at both centers). The GPLA program offered basketball in
the winter/spring and softball in the summer. The fieldwork focused primarily on
the basketball season.
In December 2003, I met with the Director of Gender Equity, who is responsible
for the oversight of the GPLA program, to discuss my research and to receive permission to conduct observations of the program. The Director of Gender Equity
chose each center to “provide an adequate representation of the GPLA program.”
Throughout the article, I refer to the two centers by the pseudonyms “Fairview”
and “Centerville.” At the Fairview recreation center, I observed three basketball
teams of eight to ten girls. Of the three Fairview teams I observed, two held practice once a week for one hour. The other team held practice once a week for two
hours. Each team had a competitive game scheduled once a week for one hour.
I spent at least sixty hours at the Fairview GPLA (the actual number of hours is
higher than this estimate because I also conducted observations before and after games and practices, as well as other GPLA events). Most of the girls on the
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“Girls Just aren’t Interested”: The Social Construction of Interest in Girls’ Sport
263
Fairview GPLA teams were Latina; several were first generation. The race of the
participants in the GPLA program was determined based on last names, informal
conversations with the girls and their parents, and in some cases, the girls’ own
racial and ethnic identification.
At the Centerville recreation center, I observed three basketball teams in order to
mirror the Fairview sample. Several teams were omitted from selection based on
their practice schedule because it overlapped with the Fairview schedule. Of the
three Centerville GPLA teams chosen, two of the teams had practice twice a week
for an hour. The other team had practice four times a week for an hour. Each team
also played approximately two games a week. Each game was an hour in length. I
spent approximately 100 hours observing the Centerville GPLA program. Most of
the girls at the Centerville GPLA were Latina (similar to Fairview). However, there
were several white, Asian/Pacific Islander, and South Asian/Indian girls in the
league. For reasons to be discussed later, most of the observations of the Centerville recreation center are from the games, rather than both games and practices.
In addition to fieldwork, I conducted open-ended, semi-structured interviews
with thirteen girls (eleven from Fairview, two from Centerville) at the end of the
season about their sport experiences (for a detailed analysis of the interviews, see
Cooky 2006). While an equal number of girls were recruited from both sites, there
was a low response rate at the Centerville site. This was due to several factors,
including the girls’ inconsistent attendance at practice and games, which made
scheduling interviews difficult; the eventual high drop-out rate in the program;
girls’ failure to show up to scheduled interviews and the last-minute cancellation
of practices by coaches and staff, which negatively impacted my ability to establish trust and rapport with the girls.
Each girl was asked questions on her sport background, why she chose to participate in the GPLA program, her likes and dislikes of the program and of sport,
her thoughts on and experiences in the program and with sport, and her thoughts
on how the program might be changed or improved. Other interviews were conducted with the Director of Gender Equity for Los Angeles Parks and Recreation
regarding the GPLA program, the senior staff attorney at the California Women’s
Law Center regarding the Baca v. City of Los Angeles case, the site directors at Centerville and Fairview about their park and GPLA programs, and two coaches at
Fairview regarding their experiences and coaching philosophies. Informal discussions with coaches, girls, and parents were also included in field notes and subsequently analyzed.
Fieldwork and interviews were collected and analyzed using qualitative research methodology (Denzin and Lincoln 2003). While qualitative methods have
multiple traditions, contemporary qualitative methods emphasize that social understandings, experiences, and structures are socially constructed (Denzin and
Lincoln 2003). Comparing two parks located in two different geographical locations (Centerville and Fairview) and studying the GPLA program, the experiences
of coaches, girl participants, and program administrators was not done to provide
a “comparative wedge” (Gieryn 2000). Instead, studying two sites highlights the
ways knowledge of the social world is constructed through social interactions and
shaped by wider social structures.
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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 52, Number 2, 2009
The “sociology of accounts” is a useful theoretical and methodological concept
that sociologists can employ in qualitative research to understand how individuals experience and identify with meanings and their social world (Orbach 1997).
Emerging out of Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis, accounts are ways individuals
socially construct their performance of self. According to Orbach (1997), for scholars who are interested in narratives or accounts, there is not an “objective reality”
that can be studied through research methods. Instead, the narratives themselves
become “real,” as presented to the researcher. The sociology of accounts allows
narrative scholars to “highlight the idea that subjective explanations develop and
evolve in the context of cultural and social factors” (Orbach 1997:467). The sociology of accounts is also relevant to this study, for it emphasizes the importance of
culture in individuals’ construction of narratives and the way that culture may
serve as a constraint to individual behavior (Orbach 1997). Given this study’s focus on structure, culture, and agency, the sociology of accounts is a useful lens
through which to analyze interviews and observations. Based on field notes and
interviews, girls’ interest in sport is socially constructed but becomes understood
by social actors as part of an “objective reality” through the social contexts and
places in which girls’ sports occur.
Originally my goal was to study the social construction of gender and the ways
adolescent girls negotiated femininity in recreational sport contexts. With qualitative methods, research objectives are data-driven. An emergent theme from my
observations was not how girls negotiated gender but rather the ways in which
seemingly “objective” realities were socially constructed through the complex processes of interactions between structure, agency, and culture. It was these differences in the everyday interactions, despite the same formal structure of the program, that led me to explore how place becomes space (Gieryn 2000) in ways that
enable and constrain girls’ interest in sport. Thus, considerations of place as space
allow researchers to examine the dynamic, recursive relationship between structure and agency.
BACA V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES: CAN GIRLS PLAY IN L.A.?
In 1998, five years prior to the start of my fieldwork, the California Women’s
Law Center worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to represent the
West Valley Girls’ Softball League in a case against the City of Los Angeles, Baca
v. City of Los Angeles. The plaintiffs sued the City of Los Angeles contending the
city did not comply with California’s Equal Protection Clause and had violated
the civil rights of girls by denying the team equal access to the city-owned ball
fields, which were dominated by male teams. Baca v. City of Los Angeles was settled out of court in 1999. As part of this settlement, the Los Angeles Department
of Recreation and Parks was required to implement a girls-only sports league.
This league was called “Girls Play Los Angeles” (GPLA), a year-round, genderspecific sports league program for “at-risk” girls, ages thirteen to fifteen. According to the Director of Gender Equity for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation
and Parks (a position also required as part of the settlement), the department
defined “at-risk” girls as those from low-income families who live in particular
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“Girls Just aren’t Interested”: The Social Construction of Interest in Girls’ Sport
265
residential communities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Although it was
never explicitly stated what girls were “at-risk” for, based on conversations with
staff, coaches, and participants, girls were understood to be “at-risk” for teen sex,
pregnancy, and gang involvement. Another factor girls were “at-risk” for was
early drop-out from sport. While boys’ and girls’ sport and physical activity participation decreases once they reach adolescence (Dwyer et al. 2006), the drop-out
rate for girls is almost six times that of boys (Garrett 2004). Girls in this age group
(thirteen to fifteen), particularly Latina girls (Denner and Dunbar 2004; Jamieson
2005), struggle with the pressure to conform to dominant notions of femininity
that often conflict with sport participation (Malcolm 2003). The GPLA program
addressed these risk factors by targeting the program to girls transitioning into
adolescence.
Sport and physical activity have been, and continue to be, viewed as a panacea for girls’ physical and psychosocial problems. Research has found positive
correlations between (some) girls’ sport participation and academic performance
(Miller et al. 2005; Videon 2002), self-esteem (Tracy and Erkut 2002), and body
image (Crissey and Honea 2006). Research has also found a negative correlation
between sport participation and the risk of teen pregnancy (Miller et al. 1999). This
body of research provided empirical support for women’s sport advocates, who
vociferously fought for Title IX and for continued support of girls’ sport programs.
During the 1990s, many school and recreation sport programs were developed to
increase opportunities for girls to play sport, given the correlation between sport
participation and pro-social outcomes.
The discussion of the broader context from which the GPLA program emerged
illustrates how cultural ideologies impacted the origination of the GPLA program.
Ideologies of individualism and liberal discourses of equality reinforce the belief
that girls have the right to participate in sport and that social institutions are obligated to create structures of opportunity for girls to participate. These ideologies
and discourses also provide a social context for which the girls and parents of the
West Valley Girls’ Softball League felt entitled, and within their legal rights, to
pursue more equitable treatment for girl athletes. In addition, ideologies of gender
equity shaped the formal structure of the GPLA program. The program is based
on the notion that all girls, regardless of race or class background, should have
access to sport opportunities. Research in the social sciences linking sport participation with increased levels of self-esteem, academic performance, decreased
sexual activity, and other socially valued characteristics contributed to a cultural
understanding that sport is good for the overall health and well-being of girls.
Thus, girls’ participation in sport should be socially supported and encouraged
(Messner 2002).
JUST LET THEM PLAY: TITLE IX THIRTY-SIX YEARS LATER
Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial
assistance.” This legislation, passed thirty-seven years ago, continues to be credited
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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 52, Number 2, 2009
for the significant strides toward gender equity in sport. Unfortunately, the significant changes in women’s sports have created a commonsense cultural belief that
girls and women now have ample opportunities to participate. Although structures of opportunity in women’s sport exist more so than at any point in history,
the Women’s Sport Foundation (2007) estimates that 80 percent of universities and
colleges are not in compliance with Title IX. Moreover, in popular culture, the sport
experiences of white middle-class girls and women have come to serve as the representation of all girls and women. This representation obscures the complex ways
in which race, class, and gender intersect to constitute girls’ sport experiences and
opportunities (Cooky in press). The argument that Title IX has passed, opportunities have increased, and therefore Title IX is no longer necessary is analogous to
the argument that affirmative action has passed, women and minorities are now
in colleges and the workplace, and therefore affirmative action legislation is no
longer necessary. Yet as sociologists consistently find, the gender wage gap continues, sexual harassment is still an issue in many workplaces, and women and
minorities continue to be und...
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