Investigations on retention and graduation often focus on the overall issue of student persistence. Research has identified two variables that consistently predict persistence: the student's ability to integrate academically and socially, and the student's commitment to degree attainment. There has not been an abundance of supporting research on the subject dealing solely with student-athlete's integration and institutional and degree commitment. Therefore, there were two major purposes of this research. The first purpose was to examine the social and academic integration experiences of track and field student-athletes. The second purpose was to determine whether social and academic integration experiences will influence student-athlete's institutional and goal commitment to member institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Atlantic Coast Conference. A survey instrument developed by Pascarella and Terenzini (1980), originally designed to measure the integration and institutional and goal commitment constructs of Tinto's model of student departure, was administered to track and field student-athletes enrolled in member institutions of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Three-way Analysis of variance tests revealed significant mean differences in social integration and academic integration when measured by race. However, no significant mean differences emerged in social integration and academic integration experiences when measured by gender and classification. Additionally, no significant differences emerged in institutional and goal commitment when measured by gender, race, and classification. Finally, hierarchical multiple regression revealed social integration and academic integration significantly influenced institutional and goal commitment when controlling for background characteristics. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that persistence efforts are applicable to student-athletes. Although student-athletes have a unique academic structure and face the intense athletic demands of competing at a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division IA level, it is important to foster social and academic integration experiences. Moreover, the benefits of positive student-athlete integration experiences will result in a positive interaction between institutional and goal commitment among student-athletes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation
Management, and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: June 27, 2007. / Higher Education, Guidance and Counseling, Commitment, Intercollegiate Athletics, Persistence / Includes bibliographical references. / Jerome Quarterman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joy Gaston Gayles, Outside Committee Member; Susan Losh, Outside Committee Member; Michael Mondello, Committee Member; B. Cecile Reynaud, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_169186 |
| Contributors | Lyons, Aundrea L. (authoraut), Quarterman, Jerome (professor directing dissertation), Gayles, Joy Gaston (outside committee member), Losh, Susan (outside committee member), Mondello, Michael (committee member), Reynaud, B. Cecile (committee member), Department of Sport Management (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This 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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