Janet B. Parks is with the Sport Management Division/School of HPER, ... addressing factors associated with careers in sports information, Chamberlin .... years of age, had been in their positions for an average of 6.9 years, held master's.
Journal of Spon Management. 1993.7. 151-158 © 1993 Human Kinetics Publishers. Inc.
Marital and Other Primary Dyadic Relationships of Intercollegiate Athletics Administrators Janet B. Parks, Ronald L. Russell, and Peter H. Wood Bowling Green State University The purpose of this study was to investigate marital and other primary dyadic relationships of intercollegiate athletics administrators at the 106 NCA.A Division IA institutions (N = 1072). The Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976, 1989) was used to assess perceptions of the quality of dyadic relationships among administrators who were either married or in unmarried, cohabiting partnerships (n = 402). Application of independent samples / tests, with alpha adjusted from .05 to .003 by Bonferroni's contrasting procedure, revealed that (a) there was a significant difference between Dyadic Cohesion scores of athletics administrators and the mjirried norm group (p < .001), and (b) female athletics administrators produced significantly higher scores in Dyadic Cohesion than did male athletics administrators (p < .003). Future research should include an investigation of dyadic adjustment of the mates/ partners of intercollegiate athletics administrators to facilitate comparisons of the two perceptions of the relationship.
According to Goldsmith (1989), "The two most important life roles for the majority of p»eople are work and family" (p. vii), and in acknowledgment of this fact, "researchers from a variety of fields have tumed their attention to investigating how individuals balance their work and family responsibilities" (p. vii). Among the various stimuli for this type of research hiave been the entry of large numbers of women into the work force, changing economic trends resulting in changing family structures, recognition of work-family role conflicts, and new perspectives on organizational structures and policies designed to accommodate work-family concems. In proposing a model designed to facilitate the study of this interface between family and employment environments, Kline and Cowan (1989) suggested that''understanding the effects of involvement in paid work requires the simultaneous consideration of four or more aspects of well-being—individual, marital, parenting, and job satisfaction'' (p. 70). Kline and Cowan characterized The authors are with Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 434030248. Janet B. Parks is with the Sport Management Division/School of HPER, Ronald L. Russell is with the College of Education & Allied Professions, and Peter H. Wood is with Educational Foundations & Inquiry. 151
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these four domains as simultaneous contributors to well-being and recommended that they should be studied in an integrated fashion. An important step in that process, however, is the analysis and description of each aspect as a prelude to exploring the interconnections among them. The present study was part of a larger investigation addressing the relationship between well-being and several aspects of work and family environments for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division IA athletics administrators. A primary ptirpose of the larger study will be the identification of predictors of well-being within the work and nonwork contexts. The present study was an exploratory analysis of one of the influences on well-being as suggested by Kline and Cowan (1989), namely, administrators' levels of satisfaction (i.e., level of dyadic adjustment) with their marital or other primary dyadic relationships. Dyadic adjustment was operationally defined as the quality of the relationship between two cohabiting adults. The emergence of sport management as an academic field of study has precipitated the need for an examination of ways in which a variety of factors associated with employment and family life interrelate to influence the sense of well-being in sport managers, in this case intercollegiate athletics administrators. Among the most prominent of these factors is the quality of marital and other primary dyadic relationships. According to Spanier (1989), Marital quality continues to be the most frequently studied variable in the field of marriage and family relations. In addition, research in allied fields, such as medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology, social work, and education increasingly examines topics related to marital quality, satisfaction, or adjustment, (p. vii) The value of such an investigation for a field of study like sport management can be expressed through two possible outcomes. First, the results could contribute to the content of professional preparation curricula. Such a contribution would be congruent with Kjeldsen's (1990) suggestion that "as part of the professional preparation in sport management, faculty should be able to inform students of the realities of careers in sport "(p. 122). TTie perceptions of current intercollegiate athletics administrators regarding the quality of their personal relationships are among the realities that should be discussed with prospective athletics administrators. Second, information conceming dyadic relationships would be valuable to employers in athletics administration by contributing to a more complete understanding of the interdependence of work and family roles. As suggested by Greenhaus (1989), this information would enable employers to recognize the need for continual assessment of the extent to which work life and family life interact and to be responsive to work-family issues in formulating organizational policies and establishing career paths.
Review of Literature Conflicts associated with individuals' efforts to combine work and family responsibilities have been reported extensively in the literature (e.g., Schultz, Chung, & Henderson, 1989). Two important variables documented as major contributors
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to this conflict are time-based factors (i.e., number of hours worked) and strainbased factors (i.e., stress that carries over from work to family and/or vice versa) (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985; Schultz et al., 1989). Both time-based and strain-based factors have been found to be associated with employment in intercollegiate athletics administration. In proposing strategies for coping with job-related stress, Williams and Miller (1982) reported that "the complexities of athletics and physical education call forth an entire panoply of stres.sors not found in other settings" (p. 116). Among the stressors identified were "hectic work schedules, excessive expectations and multiple obligations, time pressures and inconvenient hours" (p. 118). In a study of comjjeiencies needed in intercollegiate athletics administration, Judd (1991) found that "managing job related stress" (p. 25) was among the five most important competencies required of intercollegiate athletics directors as identified by athletics directors, senior women administrators, and sport management professors. Furthermore, in addressing factors associated with careers in sports information, Chamberlin (1989) observed that the time-intensive nature of the work had "an impact on not only the SID [sports information director| but also on her/his personal relationships" (p. 111). Additionally, there is a plethora of anecdotal and experiential evidence suggesting that time-based and strain-based factors are inextricably linked to employment in intercollegiate athletics administration. Conflicts produced by time-based and strain-based factors could be reflected to some extent in measures of dyadic adjustment. Therefore, an examination of athletics administrators' levels of dyadic adjustment has the potential to yield valuable information that could, in tum, be integrated into a more comprehensive analysis of the relationship between work, family, and well-being in athletics administration. The present study is the first to examine the quality of marital and other primary dyadic relationships of intercollegiate athletics administrators.
Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to investigate marital and other primary dyadic relationships of intercollegiate athletics administrators as characterized by their perceptions of their levels of dyadic adjustment. The research questions were (a) How do intercollegiate athletics administrators' dyadic adjustment scores compare with normative samples? (b) Are there gender differences in dyadic adjustment scores? and (c) Are there differences in dyadic adjustment scores across position titles? Although previous studies have revealed no differences in men's and women's responses to the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1989), gender differences have been found in studies of well-being, employment, and family work as well as in correlations between work and well-being (Kline & Cowan, 1989). An examination of gender differences is consistent with the Kline and Cowan (1989) model, which "suggests that every study of employment and wellbeing must include a male—female comparative context" (p. 79).
Method Population A nine-page questionnaire was sent to 1,072 athletics administrators at the 106 NCAA Division IA institutions. Only married administrators or those in tmmarried, cohabiting partnerships were asked to respond to the 32 items associated
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with dyadic adjustment. Single, separated, divorced, and widowed respondents were asked to omit this section of the questionnaire and if they did respond, those responses were deleted from the data set used for the dyadic adjustment pxjrtion of the larger study.
Instrumentation Dyadic adjustment was assessed through the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) (Spanier, 1976, 1989), a 32-item scale that permits one adult partner or both partners in a married or unmarried cohabiting relationship to report their perceptions of the quality of that relationship. The DAS was chosen to measure the quality of the dyadic relationship for two reasons. First, the scale's validity and reliability have been documented (Spanier, 1976, 1989). Additionally, normative scores, based on a sample of 218 white, married, working, middle-class persons living in Centre County, Pennsylvania, have been established (Spanier, 1976, 1989). Second, according to Spanier, a primar>' objective of the scale's development was to "create a measure which can be used by researchers interested in the marital relationship but also by researchers interested in other dyadic relationships, such as unmarried cohabiting couples" (Spanier, 1976, p. 17). This feature of the DAS permitted the collection of data pertaining to a wide cross section of participantsrepresentinga variety' of primary dyadic relationships. The study was limited to married or unmarried cohabiting adults and there was no attempt to determine the gender of the mate/partner because although the norms published for the DAS are based upwn heterosexual couples, the instrument has been found to be appropriate for use with both homosexual and heterosexual dyads (Kurdek & Schmitt, 1986a, 1986b: Spanier, 1989; Spanier & Filsinger, 1983). Although the DAS has been shown to reflect an overall level of perceived adjustment, the following separate subscales within the instrument can al.so be used to measure four subcomponents of total dyadic adjustment (Spanier, 1989, p. 12). • Dyadic Consensus assesses the extent of agreement between partners on matters important to the relationship, such as money, religion, recreation, friends, household tasks, and time spent together. [13 items] • Dyadic Satisfaction measures the amount of tension in the relationship, as well as the extent to which the individual has considered ending the relationship. [10 items] • Affectional Expression meastires the individual's satisfaction with the expression of affection and sex in the relationship. [4 items] • Dyadic Cohesion assesses the common interests and activities shared by the couple. [5 items] A total dyadic adjustment score consists of the sum of the scores on the subscales.
Data Analysis A series of t tests were used to analyze mean DAS subscale and overall scores for the following comparisons: (a) scores of the athletics administrators and the married norm group, (b) scores across the 13 position titles, and (c) scores produced by the female and male administrators. Alpha was setat .05 and adjusted
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by Bonferroni's contrasting procedure (p < .003) to avoid Type I experimentwise error.
Results Of the 1,072 questionnaires sent, 608 were retumed, for a response rate of 56.7%. Although 427 married or partnered administrators answered some of the dyadic questions, the 402 respondents who produced usable answers to all 32 items related to dyadic adjustment were the participants in the study.
Selected Characteristics of the Participants The following position titles were represented among the respondents: athletics director, associate/assistant athletics director, academic affairs director, business manager, compliance officer, development/public relations director, facility/event manager, sports information director, assistant sports information director, ticket manager, marketing/promotions director, recruiting coordinator, and assistant to the athletics director. The respondents were predominantly white (92.0%), male (82.6%), married (96.3%), and living in households composed of 3.2 people. They averaged 43.4 years of age, had been in their positions for an average of 6.9 years, held master's degrees (53%), and eamed an average of $45,000 per year.
Dyadic Adjustment Scaie and Subscale Reliabilities Intemal consistency reliabilities were computed for each subscale of the DAS by use of Cronbach's (1951) alpha coefficient estimate. Values of coefficient alpha were .87, .81, .81, and .73 for Dyadic Consensus, Dyadic Satisfaction, Dyadic Cohesion, and Affectional Expression, respectively. TTie total scale reliability was .92. These reliabilities are comparable with Cronbach's (1951) coefficient alpha computed for Spanier's (1976) norm groups in which the values were .90, .94, .86, and .73 for Dyadic Consensus, Dyadic Satisfaction, Dyadic Cohesion, and Affectional Expression, respectively, and .96 overall. As recommended by Nunnally (1978), alphas of >.7O were considered acceptable. The mean intercorrelations among the subscales ranged from .42 to .62 for a mean of .55. Although all six correlations were significant, the shared variances by any two subscales were low, ranging from 18% to 38% (R^). Therefore, it was concluded that these subscales mejisured sufficiently distinct entities. The t tests comparing mean scores on the Dyadic Adjtistment Scale yielded the following results. First, as shown in Table 1, most mean adjustment scores for athletics administrators were similar to those of the married norm group (Spanier, 1976). However, athletics administrators' Dyadic Cohesion scores were significantly higher than the married norm group (p < .(X)l). Second, female athletics administrators produced significantly higher scores in Dyadic Cohesion than did male athletics administrators (p < .(X)3). Third, no differences were revealed across position titles.
Discussion Although athletics administrators' levels of total dyadic adjustment were not significantly different from other populations, significantly higher scores in Dyadic Cohesion (p < .001) suggested that individuals employed in athletics administration tended to perceive they shared common interests and activities with their
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156 Table 1
Mean Dyadic Adjustment Scores
Al1 subjects {n=' 102)
Dyadic Consensus Dyadic Satisfaction Dyadic Cohesion Affectional Expression Total dyadic adjustment
Married norm groups (n = 218)
Female (n = 70)
Male 532)
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
51.8 40.9 16.2* 9.4 118.3
6.6 4.5 3.4 2.2 14.0
51.9 40.5 13.4" 9.0 114.8
6.6 7.2 4.2 2.3 17.8
53.3 40.7 17.5" 9.7 120.7
6.3 4.4 3.7 2.1 13.8
51.6 41.0 16.0" 9.3 117.8
6.7 4.5 3.3 2.2 14.0
*p' Park: Sage. Spanier, G.B. (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: New scales for a.ssessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38(2), 15-28. Spanier, G.B. (1989). Manual for the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems. Spanier, G.B., & Filsinger, E.E. (1983). Clinical use of the D\adic .Adjustment Scale. In E. E. Filsinger (Ed.), .4 sowcebook of marriage and family assessment (pp. 156168). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Williams, J.M., & Miller, D.M. (1982). Administration: Stress and how to manage it. The Physical Educator, 39, 116-120.
Note This study is pan of a larger investigation endorsed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and supported by the BGSU College of Education and Allied Professions Research Development Council; Faculty Re.search Committee; and School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Portions of this study were presented at the annual conference of the North American Society for Spon Management, June 3-6, 1992, Knoxville, TN.
