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Psychological Predictors of Career Maturity in College Student-Athletes

The purpose of the current study was to test a model that considered factors impacting the career maturity of student-athletes, particularly the relationship between role conflict, athletic identity, and career-related distress, and their effect on career maturity. The participants were 200 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I (NCAA) student-athletes from two universities. Participants were asked to complete a consent form, demographic questionnaire, Part II of the Student-Athlete Questionnaire (Perrin, 1988), Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993), Career Thoughts Inventory (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1996), and Vocational Identity (VI) scale from My Vocational Situation (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980a). Results indicated that there is a weak positive correlation between role conflict and career-related distress which means that increases in role conflict correspond to increases in career-related distress. In addition, there was a very weak positive correlation between role conflict and athletic identity, as well as role conflict and career-related distress. In the proposed model, 55% of the variance of career maturity was accounted for by role conflict, athletic identity, and career-related distress; however, career-related distress was the only variable that significantly predicted career maturity. The current study found that females reported higher levels of role conflict; however the findings did not find support for gender differences in athletic identity or career-related distress. No significant differences were found across the four years of undergraduate study for role conflict, athletic identity, and career-related distress. In addition, differences did not emerge on role conflict, athletic identity, and career-related distress between student-athletes participating in revenue and non-revenue producing sports. Future research could focus on other factors influencing the career development of student-athletes compared with the experiences of other college students, career development within different sports, and opportunities for creative interventions with the student-athlete population. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2008. / July 11, 2008. / College Student-Athletes, Athletic Identity, Role Conflict, Career Maturity / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Steven Pfeiffer, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Andrew Rudd, Outside Committee Member; F. Donald Kelly, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182322
ContributorsHeller, Tracy L. (Tracy Lauren), 1978- (authoraut), Tenenbaum, Gershon (professor co-directing dissertation), Pfeiffer, Steven (professor co-directing dissertation), Rudd, Andrew (outside committee member), Kelly, F. Donald (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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