Student-athletes enter higher education in the United States with diverse backgrounds and academic preparation. In some cases, student-athletes are underprepared for the academic rigor, social structure, and ethical expectations of these institutions. Athletic coaches are charged with the recruitment of highly skilled, competitive, and prepared student-athletes, while other athletic officials are responsible to provide the proper academic support, care, and overall well-being of student-athletes. If coaches, athletic administrators, advisors, and learning specialists could identify educational and demographic patterns related to student-athletes' propensity to trust, they would be better equipped to gain these students' trust and help them navigate the stress related to athletic participation and academic demands. This quantitative study investigates the influence of individual student-athletes' propensity to trust and the relationship between academic success, measured by grade point average (GPA). This study also examines the relationship between propensity to trust and demographic and educational variables that may assist athletic coaches, athletic administrators, and athletic support staff, such as advisors and learning specialists, in better understanding the impact propensity to trust has on student-athletes. To determine propensity to trust, the current study used the validated Propensity to Trust Scale by Frazier, Johnson, and Fainshmidt (2013) as well as a demographic questionnaire developed to measure students' background and educational attributes. Responses to an online survey from 221 student-athletes were collected from a large, private research institution that participates in Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association athletics. Statistical analyses, including t-test, analysis of variance, and Fisher's Least Significant Difference post hoc test, were used to identify between-group differences, while multiple regression analyses identified differences in propensity to trust among demographic and educational variables. Findings indicate there was no significant differences in propensity to trust among scholarship and non-scholarship student-athletes, sex, or marital status, but significant differences did exist among student-athletes who are members of the church affiliated with the university, returned missionaries from the predominate religion, minority, and transfer students. In addition, differences in propensity to trust between different athletic teams were found. Finally, findings also indicate propensity to trust is related to current GPA. Implications from this study suggest that propensity to trust can be a valuable consideration when assessing how to provide proper support to current student-athletes. This research also suggests that a propensity to trust measure may be useful when recruiting prospective college student-athletes. Schools should not assume that propensity to trust is consistent among each team and each individual student-athlete.

School officials responsible for the growing international student populations struggle to find ways to help them navigate inconsistencies that may exist between federal regulations and institutional policies, and would benefit from increased understanding of ways to gain trust from diverse student populations. To determine whether student demographics might be related to propensity to trust, this study used the validated Propensity to Trust Scale (PTTS) by Frazier, Johnson, and Fainshmidt (2013), as well as a demographic questionnaire developed to measure students' background and educational attributes. Responses to an online survey from 576 international students from 71 countries were collected from a large private institution of higher education in the Western United States. Basic inferential statistics, including Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and post hoc analysis, identified differences among demographic groups within this student population. Findings indicated that students who were not native speakers of the dominant language had a lower propensity to trust than native English speakers, and female students had a lower propensity to trust than did male students. Findings also indicated that during the senior year of school propensity to trust was significantly lower than in earlier undergraduate years and in graduate school. Implications from this study include an emphasis on the value of considering individuals within their own unique cultural and educational contexts, and avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to fostering trust with students. Additionally, school officials should not assume that propensity to trust is consistent among those with institutional similarities and must not stereotype students based on their backgrounds.

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Interpersonal trust reflects a vital component of all social relationships. Trust has been linked to a wide variety of individual and group outcomes in the literature, including personal satisfaction and motivation, willingness to take risks, and organizational success (Dirks & Ferrin, 2001; Pratt & Dirks, 2007; Simpson, 2007). In this dissertation I tested a new conceptual model evaluating the roles of attachment, propensity to trust, perceived similarity of trustee to self, and social exchange processes in trust development with randomly assigned, same-sex undergraduate roommates. Two hundred and fourteen first-year students (60% female, 85% Caucasian, mean age = 18) at a large south-eastern university completed self-report measures once per week during the first five weeks of the fall semester. Perceived similarity measured the second week of classes and social exchange measured three weeks later combined to provide the best prediction of participants' final trust scores. Attachment and propensity to trust, more distal predictors, did not have a significant relationship with trust. This study demonstrated that trust is strongly related to perceived similarity, as well as social exchange. A prime contribution of this study is the longitudinal, empirical test of a model of trust development in a new and meaningful relationship. Future work may build on this research design and these findings by focusing on early measurement of constructs, measuring dyads rather than individuals, and incorporating behavioral measures of trust. / Ph. D.

Background:Working in virtual teams from a distance has been a trend for the past decades and today, it is how many companies operate. As a company grows and gets more global, the leadership of the company gets more challenging and more complex. This puts high pressure on the workers and requires team members that have special skill to be operating a team from distance. Purpose:The purpose of this study was to get a deeper understanding on the effect of different personality traits based on propensity to trust and technology communication anxiety, which are the predictors of job satisfaction in remote virtual team, according to the literature. Hypotheses:Hypothesis 1A: Conscientiousness is negatively correlated with propensity to trust. Hypothesis 1B: Extraversion is positively correlated with propensity to trust. Hypothesis 1C: Agreeableness is positively correlated with propensity to trust.Hypothesis 2a: Neuroticism is positively correlated with technology communication anxiety.Hypothesis 2b: Openness is negatively correlated with technology communication anxiety.Hypothesis 3: Propensity to trust is positively correlated with perceived virtual teams usefulnessHypothesis 4: Technology communication anxiety is negatively correlated with job satisfaction in remote virtual team.Hypothesis 5: Perceived remote virtual team usefulness is positively correlated with job satisfaction in remote virtual teams. Methodology:A quantitative study was conducted to address the aim of the study. In total, 54 questionnaires were gathered. After the quantitative study was analyzed, three interviews were conducted to interpret the findings.Findings:Among five personality traits, only two of them are found to be predictors of technology communication anxiety and propensity to trust. Perceived usefulness is found to be the strongest predictor for job satisfaction. However, the R square shows that there are some other factors that affect job satisfaction.

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