AASP Newsletter - November 2020

Researchers' Corner: Growth Following Adversity in Sport - An Inspirational and Cautionary Tale

Ross Wadey

Melissa Day

Karen Howells

  Ross Wadey, PhD, St Mary’s University, United Kingdom
Melissa Day, PhD, University of Chichester, United Kingdom 
Karen Howells, PhD, Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

Adversity is a term that could be used to reflect the current harsh reality of life for the many involved in competitive sport. For example, applied sport psychology researchers have recently provided evidence of social injustices, toxic cultures, and abusive relationships in elite sport (e.g., Cavallerio et al., 2016; Feddersen et al., 2019; Kavanagh et al., 2017; Kerr & Sterling, 2019). Given these oppressive and destructive cultures and adverse experiences, this begs several questions: How can we learn from these various forms of adversity to prevent and/or better prepare for future adversity? How can we bring about positive change in sport for the better to support the safety, wellbeing, and welfare of the people who take part? How can we make sport a better place for all involved?

One concept that aims to explore the notion of positive change in the aftermath of adversity at micro (e.g., individual), meso (e.g., dyadic, team), and macro levels (e.g., organizational, cultural) is growth following adversity in sport (Wadey et al., 2020). While on the one hand this concept might be argued to “do good” (e.g., changing policies and practices that better support athlete welfare), it is also important to recognize that it can also “do bad” (e.g., perpetuate destructive and adverse training practices based on the underlying belief that people will master and transcend adversity). This paradox provides a challenge for applied sport psychology practitioners: Should growth be promoted or not? We critically consider the concept of growth following adversity in sport in the following two tales (i.e., inspirational and cautionary in nature) and conclude by providing some evidence-based guidelines for professional practice. 

An Inspirational Tale

Applied sport psychology researchers have started to explore the potential for growth following adversity in sport. Examples of the types of adversity that have been examined in the academic literature include deselection (Neely et al., 2018); sport injury (Roy-Davis et al., 2017); performance slumps, coach conflicts, bullying, eating disorders, sexual abuse (Tamminen et al., 2013); and repeated non-selection and significant sporting failure (Sarkar et al., 2015). Although these adversities were identified to have negative consequences (e.g., psychological distress), the findings also revealed these adverse experiences were not entirely debilitative, with some athletes reporting inspirational stories of triumphing over adversity. To offer some examples of the positive changes experienced, Howells et al. (2017) systematically reviewed the growth following adversity literature in sport and identified that these experiences could be synthesized across three categories: intrapersonal (e.g., new life philosophy, increased resilience), interpersonal (e.g., less judgmental, increased pro-social behavior), and physical (e.g., superior performance, enhanced body awareness). To illustrate, Holly Bradshaw, two-time Olympic pole vaulter, recently reported: 

Since 2012 I have sustained four major injuries and setbacks, which have forced me to take long periods out of the sport. Over the last six years I have missed major championships and my performance progression has slowed due to months of little training. Yet because of this I am so much stronger psychologically and physically, my pole vault technique is so much better, and I feel like I have developed in many different ways as a person (Athletics Weekly, 2019). 

Applied sport psychology researchers have also recently extended the literature by providing evidence for the efficacy of certain interventions to nurture growth following adversity (e.g., emotional disclosure, gratitude visit; Salim & Wadey, 2018, 2019) as well as drawing from sport psychology consultants’ experiential knowledge of how they work with athletes who have experienced adversity such as sport injury (Wadey, Roy-Davis, et al., 2019). These findings offer applied sport psychology practitioners some preliminary evidence of how they can help transform adverse experiences into opportunities for growth and positive change, which can help some to better prepare for future adversity (Wadey, Evans, et al., 2019). It is now important that researchers seek to extend this evidence-base to consider how we can bring about positive change beyond an intrapersonal and interpersonal perspective (e.g., organizational policies and practices that can help promote social justice; see Lee & Cunningham, 2019; Schinke et al., 2018; Wagstaff, 2020) and how applied sport psychologists (and others) can perhaps act as advocates on behalf of athletes and other stakeholders (Heil, 2016; Tibbetts et al., 2017).  

A Cautionary Tale

While the storyline of growth following adversity in sport might be inspirational for some, Salim and Wadey (2018) emphasized that future research and practice in this area should proceed with caution. For example, Tamminen and Neely (2016) reported how idealizing the concept of growth can promote and legitimize adversity in sport. Put another way, it can endorse and justify the questionable acts of coaches, parents, and others involved in sport on the underlying assumption that adverse practices and conditions will promote growth amongst their athletes. Tamminen and Neely posed a question worthy of further consideration: “What is at risk when we promote growth in sport, and is the potential for growth worth the distress associated with adversity?” (Tamminen & Neely, 2016, p. 198). This critical question aligns with Wortman’s (2004) concerns in the wider growth literature who reported how the concept of growth following adversity could make us more complacent towards harm and make us worry less about the social conditions that cause suffering and distress because we have faith that people will be able to master and transcend adversity. Becoming more complacent and worrying less about social conditions is clearly a significant risk if practitioners working in the field are to naively (despite having misguided good intentions) intervene in professional practice to promote the uncritical uptake of growth following adversity research in sport. 

Another caution about the concept of growth is that it can impose an unrealistic narrative and associated expectations onto those who have experienced adversity, as well as lead to negative judgments about those who do not experience growth, making them feel like coping failures (Wadey et al., 2020). The concern here is that growth becomes expected, obligatory even, which may engender a climate of implicit blame and stigmatization towards those who fail to experience growth. Put another way, the narrative of growth following adversity might portray that is it simply not good enough to “just” recover anymore – athletes, relationships, teams, and organizations must come back stronger. This concern was raised by a sport psychology consultant in a recent study on growth following sport injury (Wadey et al., 2019): 

We need to be careful of pushing this whole growth idea. It’s something that we are seeing in the media now, in terms of “You must overcome adversity.” It can place real pressures on injured athletes. Not only do they have to deal with all the turmoil of being injured, but now they must come back stronger. And from my experience that pressure really doesn’t help... There shouldn’t be an expectation of growth (p. 253)

It is important, therefore, that future researchers and applied practitioners remain critical of the concept of growth following adversity in sport (Wadey et al., 2020). It is also important to recognize that this is not a safe area of research; it is riddled with controversy, heated discussion, and disagreement (Wadey et al., 2020). However, rather than sidelining or dismissing the concept altogether, we believe it should be discussed, debated, researched, and applied with the utmost care. Adversity is never a good thing and no amount of growth can undo the pain of such experiences; it will not make everything better and put an end of any suffering. Not everyone will experience growth, and nor should growth become an expectation. But ignoring the potential existence of growth, we would argue, will be unhelpful in bringing about positive change in sport at micro (e.g., individual), meso, (e.g., dyadic, team), and macro levels (e.g., organizational policies and practices). 

Practical Recommendations

We should not assume that just because academic researchers have identified interesting, significant and/or meaningful findings that we should, without critical reflection, progress to developing interventions for the wider sporting community. From carefully considering the ethics endorsed by representation bodies for psychology such as the American Psychological Association, there is a promotion for the requirement of non-maleficence by practitioners. That is, a principle of “do no harm”. Yet, Howells and Wadey (2020) argued that we need to go one step further by also critically considering whether our research findings are useful to the wider sporting community. To assist towards this agenda, the principle of beneficence has been recommended–the balancing of the benefits of application of interventions against their respective risks and costs–to promote a more reflective approach to the uptake of research findings, especially regarding growth following adversity research in sport (Howells & Wadey, 2020). With the principle of beneficence in mind, we provide some preliminary evidence-based practical recommendations for sport psychology consultants (for a recent systematic review of growth interventions in the wider literature, see Howells et al., 2020):

• Advocate for athletes’ rights (and others including coaches, paid employees, and volunteers) and responsible organizational practices (Heil, 2016). However, be mindful and cautious of the challenges in doing so.
• Recognize that not everyone will experience growth following adversity; therefore, do not expect growth (Wadey et al., 2019).
• Afford the opportunity to those who have experienced adversity to verbally share their stories in a safe and comfortable environment (Salim & Wadey, 2018) or use alternative mediums such as written diaries, expressive writing, journaling, artwork, poetry, and/or music (Wadey et al., 2019).
• Take a context-specific consulting approach when working with those who have experienced adversity (Brown et al., 2005) to recognize and account for the broader social-cultural-organizational environments in which the adversity occurred and identity where positive change might best be targeted (Wadey et al., 2019). 
• At an appropriate time with those who have experienced adversity (e.g., a switch from past to present or future tense in dialogue; Wadey et al., 2019), take a Socratic approach (Corlett, 1996) by posing challenging questions that encourage rigorous personal and social examination to enable those to critically reflect and make sense of their experiences (Wadey et al., 2019).
• Enable those who have experienced adversity to identify opportunities in the aftermath and, where conditions allow, encourage them to act on the opportunities available to them. However, do not explicitly mention or prescribe growth (Wadey et al., 2019).
• Monitor indicators of growth through observation and/or by encouraging those who have experienced adversity to keep an audit trail of their experiences (e.g. diary, reflective practice, create a storyboard; Wadey et al., 2019). 
• With enough evidence (e.g., change in policy or practice), label positive change as growth (or use another term) and share stories of growth to evidence that positive change is possible following adversity (Wadey et al., 2019). However, do not do this prematurely and recognize that this might impose unrealistic expectations onto others (directly or indirectly).
• Be mindful that those who have experienced growth are likely to still be struggling (i.e., growth and distress can co-exist; Wadey et al., 2019) and that the experience of adversity doesn’t always help athletes to become more resilient to future adversity (Wadey et al., 2019).
• Encourage those who have experienced adversity to be grateful for the support they have received from others (e.g., gratitude visit; Salim & Wadey, 2019) 

References

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