Administrators and coaches in universities and colleges have focused on their students' moral development since the beginning of the higher education system. Students who participate in sports activities have acknowledged that they develop many life skills, including ethical behaviors, that can translate to non-sport environments, such as the classroom. Students who participate in organized sports programs in college often acknowledge their coach as a significant source of their development, due to the amount of time athletes and coaches spend with each other. Recently, instances of cheating have become widespread throughout American higher education. In this dissertation, I seek to evaluate the role that coaches, and overall sports participation has on the development of students' ethical behaviors both within sports and outside of the sport environment. I conducted three quantitative studies to evaluate the role that coaches play in the development of ethical behaviors in sports (as measured through sportsmanship), the similarities and differences in sportsmanship between participation in varsity or club sports, and the role that sports participation has on self-reported instances of cheating. I find that coaching behaviors that instill sportsmanship behaviors are similar to behaviors identified in youth sports and that the coaching behaviors are more predictive of coaches caring that their athletes act in a sportsmanlike way within varsity athletes than club athletes. Lastly, this study also indicates that participation in recreational sports programs is related to self-reported instances of cheating. The three studies identify that sports participation influences the development of ethical behaviors within college students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1833530 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Beldon, Zachary David |
| Contributors | Ro, Hyun Kyoung, Baldwin, Veronica, Walker, Joseph T, Collins, John R. |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Beldon, Zachary David, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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