Effects of Time Utilization on the Well-being of College Athletes

Abstract

Background: Considering that college student-athletes spend a lot of time attending to academic and athletic tasks, their well-being can be compromised. Published literature on the impact of time demands on the well-being of college student-athletes is limited. Hence, the scholarly place of the current study is warranted. Objective: This research investigated the effects of academic time use and athletic time use on the subjective, emotional, and physical well-being of college student-athletes. Methods: A subset of the NCAA GOALS data, which included 5,042 student-athletes, was utilized. Two research questions were examined: (1) to what extent does academic time use predict subjective, emotional, and physical well-being? and (2) to what extent does athletic time use predict subjective, emotional, and physical well-being? and (2) to what extent does athletic time use predict subjective, emotional, and physical well-being? A series of two-step hierarchical regression analyses were performed. Race, gender, and NCAA division level were used as control variables. Results and Discussion: Results revealed that academic time use is a significant positive predictor of subjective well-being. Moreover, athletic time use is also a significant predictor of all well-being indicators. It positively predicted subjective well-being but negatively predicted emotional and physical well-being. Conclusion: Our findings showed that both academic and athletic time utilizations are significant predictors of subjective well-being but in varying directions.