Merits and demerits of engaging in athletic, academic and part-time job roles among university student-athletes in Japan.

Abstract

Although role conflict management is necessary for the prevention of dropout from participation in sports, little has been known about it, especially regarding Japanese university student-athletes. Hence, this study examined the aspects of merit and demerit involved in their performances of academic, athletic, part-time job, family and human relationship roles. The merits and demerits were evaluated using the theoretical concepts of negative spillover (NSP), positive spillover (PSP), compensation and segmentation. In the research, a total of 108 participants (63 males, 45 females) described information about their multiple roles in the Multiple Roles Map (MRM) form. NSP with high frequency rates (3rd quartile) showed demerit that negative condition in athletic and part-time job roles tended to disturb performance of other roles (male ≥ 17.5%, female ≥ 15.6%). The results of PSP showed merit that positive condition in the athletic, part-time job and academic roles contributes to accomplishment of good performance in other roles (male ≥ 19.0%, female ≥ 17.8%). Compensation indicated that negative conditions in the roles were compensated by satisfaction in the human relationships and family roles and private time (male ≥ 9.5%, female ≥ 11.1%). The family role was segmented from other roles (male ≥ 71.4%, female ≥ 68.9%). Sharing these findings will be effective in helping to solve role conflict problems of university student-athletes in Japan.