Sport Psychology Professionals' Perceptions of the Roadblocks to Cultural Sport Psychology

In recent years, sport psychology professionals (SPPs) have recognized the importance of being aware of culture in their scholarly and applied practice. However, there is still a discrepancy between this recognition and the apparent implementation of these cultural lenses in sport psychology (SP). With this study, we aimed to explore and understand the perceived experiences of SPPs of the challenges faced while integrating and implementing culture in their scholarly and applied practice. Grounded in a critical realist philosophical framework, we conducted a study using semistructured interviews and a consensual qualitative research (Hill, 2012) methodological approach to analyze the data. We interviewed 25 globally situated SPPs (13 males and 12 females) with approximately 18 years (17.83, SD = 10.88) of professional experience. We developed two main domains: (a) SP as a culturally challenged field and (b) personal challenges to cultural SP practice. Although these SPPs acknowledged the importance of culture in developing and implementing SP research studies and applied interventions, they also recognized how most scholarship and applied practices are still founded in Westernized ethnocentric philosophical assumptions. These SPPs also shared their perceived experience of the challenges faced while integrating culture into their professional practice and scholarship; how, early in their careers, they struggled with accepting their own limits, biases, and the impossible task of developing prescribed universal cultural competence applicable across people and contexts. Their perceived experiences support the recent call for more culturally grounded research and applied practice (Ryba et al., 2013). Recommendations for future investigation are also discussed.