The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which college student athletes at the Florida State University had achieved three developmental tasks--to develop autonomy, purpose, and mature interpersonal relationships--as assessed by the Student Developmental Task Inventory (SDTI-2). The college student athletes' scores were compared with national norms established in 1984 by Student Development Associates. Sex, race, class standing, and specific sports participation were studied to determine their relationship with the student athletes' development. / All male and female student athletes (340) attending Florida State University during the fall semester of 1985 served as the research sample. Of these 302 (88.8%) completed the study instrument. Among the participants, 66.2% were males and 37.8% were females; 73.8% were white and 26.2% were non-white. Respondents were distributed among four class standings: 31.4% freshman, 25.2% sophomores, 24.5% juniors, and 18.9% seniors. / Except for the freshmen, the student athletes were at a significantly lower level than the national sample in developing autonomy, purpose, and mature interpersonal relationships. For all three developmental tasks, female student athletes scored significantly higher than male student athletes, white student athletes scored significantly higher than non-white student athletes, and freshman student athletes outperformed sophomores, juniors, and seniors. In relation to specific sports, females participating in track and volleyball scored highest on the three developmental tasks, and the male football and baseball players scored the lowest. / The findings of this study seem to indicate that the student athletes at the Florida State University are in a state of "suspended maturation." The results of this study, combined with findings by Blann (1984) and Sowa and Gressard (1983), seem to indicate that participation in athletics tends to retard students' development of autonomy, purpose, and mature interpersonal relationships as the students proceed through their university experience. This finding should be of major concern to university administrators. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-10, Section: A, page: 3678. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75946 |
| Contributors | LAWRENCE, MICHAEL JOHN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 180 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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