Motivation toward dual career of Italian student-athletes enrolled in different university paths

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate motivations for the dual career of Italian student-athletes attending different university courses. For this purpose, the Italian Harmonized version of the Student-athletes’ Motivation toward Sports and Academics Questionnaire (SAMSAQ-IT/A) was administered to 760 Italian student-athletes. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were applied to test the factor structure and the reliability of the SAMSAQ-IT/A, respectively. Furthermore, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) assessed the fit of the model. A multivariate approach was applied to verify subgroups effects (P ≤ 0.05) in relation to gender (i.e., female, male), competition level (i.e., elite, sub-elite), type of sport (i.e., individual sport, team sport, disciplines performed both as individual and team), educational area (i.e., economical/law, humanistic, mathematics/engineering, medical, movement/sport sciences), and year of attendance (i.e., Bachelor 1st, 2nd, 3rd year, Master degree 1st and 2nd year, off course). EFA highlighted a three-factor model (i.e., Sport Motivation, SM; Academic Motivation, AM; Dual Career Motivation, CM) with acceptable reliability estimates (SM = 0.93; AM = 0.85; CM = 0.90) and good CFA indexes. Furthermore, differences between subgroups were found for gender (SM, P = 0.02; AM, P = 0.007), type of sport (AM, P = 0.039), competition level (SM, P < 0.001; CM, P = 0.004), educational area (SM, P = 0.003; AM, P = 0.001; CM, P < 0.001), and year of attendance (AM, P = 0.005; CM, P = 0.002). In conclusion, SAMSAQ-IT/A demonstrated to be a useful tool and results showed that Italian student-athletes’ motivation for dual career has to be specifically investigate according to gender, age, competition level, type of sport, educational area, and year of attendance.