Sport Social Work: Unique Opportunities, Benefits, and Barriers

Abstract

Summary: Sport social workers operate across all sport systems and settings, from youth recreation to professional athletics. Due to the diversity of ways in which social work practice intersects with sport, the specialization of sport social work remains nebulous. To begin to disentangle this ambiguity, the current exploratory study sough to better understand the unique perspectives and lived experiences sport social workers who: (1) use sport to promote healthy development and holistic wellbeing, and (2) provide services to those involved in sport to promote healthy development and holistic wellbeing. Following the recommendations of Braun et al. (2021)—who positioned the online survey as a qualitative research tool—a 29-item online questionnaire was administered to the Alliance of Social Workers in Sport email listserv. In total, 84 participants engaged in the survey.
 Findings: Findings highlight unique opportunities for sport social workers (e.g., teach life skills; engage in interprofessional collaborations), benefits of having sport social workers (e.g., enhance treatment, social work values), and barriers that sport social workers face (e.g., lack of education, sport culture).
 Applications: The ability to better understand the ways in which social workers operate at the intersection of social work and sport is a critical next step in advancing the profession, as well as the unique area of sport social work practice.