Intercollegiate Student-athletes Research Articles

The Career Planning, Athletic Identity, and Student Role Identity of Intercollegiate Student Athletes

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the career planning of university student athletes and relationships between their career planning and athletic and student role identities. Two retrospective in-depth interviews were held with four male and four female university student athletes. Participants entered university with vague or nonexistent career objectives and invested heavily in their athletic roles. In the latter years of their college career, the participants discarded their sport career ambitions and allowed the student role to become more prominent in their identity hierarchies. The current findings support Brown and Hartley's (1998) suggestion that student athletes may invest in both the athlete and student role identities simultaneously and that investing in the latter may permit the exploration of nonsport career options.

The Career Planning, Athletic Identity, and Student Role Identity of Intercollegiate Student Athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine the career planning of university student athletes and relationships between their career planning and athletic and student role identities. Two retrospective in-depth interviews were held with four male and four female university student athletes. Participants entered university with vague or nonexistent career objectives and invested heavily in their athletic roles. In the latter years of their college career, the participants discarded their sport career ambitions and allowed the student role to become more prominent in their identity hierarchies. The current findings support Brown and Hartley's (1998) suggestion that student athletes may invest in both the athlete and student role identities simultaneously and that investing in the latter may permit the exploration of nonsport career options.

An examination of the domain specificity of perfectionism among intercollegiate student-athletes

There is currently disagreement among perfectionism theorists as to whether the personality trait of perfectionism should be conceptualized and measured as a global personality construct or as a domain-specific construct. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if perfectionism levels varied as a function of the situational context within which perfectionist tendencies were considered. A total of 133 male ( M age = 21.59 years, SD = 2.32) and 108 female ( M age = 21.44 years, SD = 2.68) intercollegiate student-athletes participated in the study. Respondents completed three self-report instruments designed to measure global perfectionist tendencies, and perfectionist tendencies in the achievement domains of sport and academe. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed that perfectionism levels varied significantly for both males and females as a function of the situational context within which perfectionist tendencies were examined. Moreover, male participants tended to have higher perfectionist tendencies than female participants in the sport domain. The results suggest that individual differences in perfectionism can be attributed to the situational context of the achievement domains that respondents are asked to consider when judging their perfectionist tendencies. A move towards the domain specific assessment of perfectionism is advocated.

The Role Experimentation of Intercollegiate Student Athletes

This study examined the role experimentation of university student athletes using in-depth interviews. The results revealed participants’ role experimentation was limited to three spheres: athletic, academic, and social. Participants’ exploration of and commitment to roles revealed a two-stage model of identity formation. The first stage, Over-Identification with the Athlete Role, revealed a singular focus on athletics that persisted throughout much of the participants’ university careers. The second stage, Deferred Role Experimentation, reflected an increased investment in academic and social roles in the participants’ upper years. Results were consistent with previous findings of an athletic identity among intercollegiate student-athletes (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993), but supported Perna, Zaichkowsky, and Bocknek’s (1996) suggestion that identity foreclosure may have been overgeneralized.

“There’s No Race On The Playing Field”

Contrary to patterns in the public opinion literature, the authors predicted White and Black athletes would agree at similar levels that racial and ethnic discrimination is no longer a problem. Using survey data collected from 533 intercollegiate student athletes as part of the 1996 Progress in College/Social and Group Experiences study, they found White and Black athletes did not differ significantly in their perceptions of discrimination. The authors investigated interrelationships among perceptions of discrimination and athletic and racial identity centrality, proposing that athletic identity dampens racial identity and perceptions of discrimination. They found Black student athletes strongly identified with athletics reported low levels of racial identity centrality. In contrast, White student athletes strongly identified with athletics reported high levels of racial identity centrality. Finally, among Black student athletes, high levels of athletic identity centrality were positively associated with the perception that racial and ethnic discrimination is no longer a problem.

Application of the Transtheoretical Model to Psychological Skills Training

In an effort to apply the transtheoretical model of change to the area of psychological skills training, questionnaires measuring stage of change, decisional balance, and self-efficacy were developed and cross-validated on two samples of NCAA Division I intercollegiate student-athletes. The measures showed good internal reliability and construct validity and exhibited hypothesized functional relationships with each other. In addition, the stage of change measure predicted sport psychology consultations initialed by athletes during the year following questionnaire administration and may prove to be a useful tool in predicting subsequent initiation of individual sport psychology consultation. Several potentially useful lines of research are discussed and recommendations are made regarding the development of sport psychology interventions tailored according to athletes’ stage of change.

Identity Foreclosure, Athletic Identity, and Career Maturity in Intercollegiate Athletes

A study was conducted with 124 intercollegiate student-athletes at an NCAA Division I institution to examine the relationship between self-identity variables (i.e., identity foreclosure and athletic identity) and career maturity. Results indicated that both identity foreclosure and athletic identity were inversely related to career maturity. Significant effects of gender, playing status (varsity vs. nonvarsity), and sport (revenue producing vs. nonrevenue producing) on career maturity were observed. The findings suggest that failure to explore alternative roles and identifying strongly and exclusively with the athlete role are associated with delayed career development in intercollegiate student athletes, and that male varsity student-athletes in revenue-producing sports may be especially at risk for impaired acquisition of career decision-making skills. The results underscore the importance of understanding athletic identity issues and exercising caution in challenging sport-related occupational aspirations in presenting career development interventions to student-athletes.

Constitutional Considerations of Mandatory Drug Testing Programs for Intercollegiate Student-Athletes

In an attempt to confront society's drug problem, many colleges and universities have implemented drug testing programs for their student-athletes. While more and more institutions continue to initiate drug testing programs, a number of questions concerning the constitutionality of drug testing remain unanswered. constitutional questions such as due protection against self-incrimination, due process guarantees, and protection against unreasonable searches and seizures are at issue. In light of the many unanswered questions surrounding drug testing, administrators should develop not only a philosophical rationale but also a legal rationale for either having or not having drug testing programs for student-athletes.

Results of screening a large group of intercollegiate competitive athletes for cardiovascular disease

To determine the feasibility of detecting cardiovascular disease in a large group of young competitive athletes, a prospective screening evaluation of intercollegiate student athletes was undertaken at the University of Maryland. Initial clinical screening (including personal and family history, physical examination and 12 lead electrocardiogram) was performed in 501 athletes. Ninety of these subjects had positive findings on one or more of the three studies and agreed to further cardiologic evaluation. The vast majority (75 [84%] of 90) had no definitive evidence of cardiovascular disease, although 1 athlete had mild systemic hypertension and 14 (15%) had echocardiographic evidence of relatively mild mitral valve prolapse that had not been previously suspected. In three athletes with relatively mild ventricular septal hypertrophy (14 to 15 mm), it was not possible to discern with absolute certainty whether the wall thickening was a manifestation of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or secondary to athletic conditioning ("athlete heart"). Therefore, this screening protocol identified no athletes with definite evidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Marfan's syndrome or other cardiovascular diseases that convey a significant potential risk for sudden death or disease progression during athletic activity. This failure to identify such diseases could have been due to a lack of sensitivity of the screening tests or to the low frequency with which these diseases occur in youthful healthy athletes. A systematic preparticipation screening program (such as the present one) does not appear to be an efficient means of detecting clinically important cardiovascular disease in young athletes.

The Educational Experiences of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes

The Educational Experiences of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes