Subjective well-being of female football players in the German Women’s Bundesliga and 2nd Women’s Bundesliga with special consideration of educational status

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article analyses factors which are influencing the well-being of elite female footballers. With the educational status, sport-specific factors as well as socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, aspects of the current life circumstances of female footballers are focused. For data generating, an online survey was conducted among women’s Bundesliga and 2nd Women’s Bundesliga footballers. A total of n = 200 questionnaires (German: = 191; English: n = 9) were included in the analysis, which corresponds to approx. 29.6% of the addressed population. The results underline the importance of educational status, the number of injuries/illnesses and the subjectively perceived satisfaction with football-specific income as factors influencing subjective well-being. This study addresses both the gender-bias and the neglect of the educational aspect in previous studies on the well-being of elite athletes and provides implications for the support of dual careers, the need for injury management and the importance of adequate payment in women’s football.