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Investigating college athletes' role identities and career development

This study investigated the relationships between student identity, athlete
identity, and career development among National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Division I college athletes. In Study 1, participants completed measures of
student identity, athlete identity, career self-efficacy, and demographic information
including race, sex, and sport played. Results indicated that student identity of the
college athletes in Study 1 was a significant predictor of career decision-making selfefficacy
(β=.33, t=3.86, p<.001). Study 2 included in-depth individual interviews with
twelve college athletes. The goal of Study 2 was to better understand the conflict of
student and athlete identities and how this conflict affected career planning for college
athletes. Several themes emerged from the interviews, including adjustments the
athletes undertook to cope with the conflicting roles. A conceptual model was
developed to illustrate the complex and fluid nature of the role conflict and the athlete’s
management strategies. The results from both studies provide insight into the nature of
the relationships between these identities and career development. Suggestions for
future research on influences to career development for college athletes are included.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1543
Date15 May 2009
CreatorsFinch, Bryan Lewis
ContributorsSagas, Michael
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeBook, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text
Formatelectronic, application/pdf, born digital

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