8.4 (Zanin et al. 2019)

Athletes do not report concussion readily. They often conceal it due to cultural discourses and norms.

Cultural narratives

Based on (Polkinghorne 1995) two-level conceptualization of narrative: actors use narrative to create social reality and to make sense of their experiences.

Sport narrative and sensemaking:

• Sensemaking is the basis for social action.
  • Sensemaking is where meanings materialize to create identity.
    
• Cultural narratives help actors sensemaking by giving them a framework to understand an event.

Method: Abductive approach
Text Arichival Data: identify protagonist, actors, storyline, story values, and morals for each story. Then, identify sport story archetypes

Interview Data:
using constant comparative analysis to see how stakeholder made sense of a concussion even and reporting behavior, then compare to the types identified in the text archival data.

Findings:

5 narratives identified:

• Play-Through-Pain: enduring pain for the benefits of the team.
  
• Big Leagues: American Dream of becoming a professional athlete through hard work and perseverance.
  
• Commodification: abstract objects with financial value
  
• Masculine Warrior: protagonist defeats an opponent through strength, toughness, bravery, violence, and perseverance
  
• Need-for-Safety: Contemporary culture where “athletes that seek healthcare are framed as moral and intelligent.”

Stakeholders refer to these 5 narratives to make sense of reporting behaviors.

Sensemaking use cultural sport narrative
(1) to extract cues: whether you have a concussion or not
(2) construct identity: positive defense mechanism (4 over 5 narratives).