{"id":121,"date":"2008-02-15T09:46:34","date_gmt":"2008-02-15T09:46:34","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-11-26T21:37:01","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T21:37:01","slug":"athletes-expectations-for-success-in-athletics-compared-to-academic-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/athletes-expectations-for-success-in-athletics-compared-to-academic-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletes&#8217; Expectations for Success in Athletics Compared to Academic Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"submitted\">Submitted by:Jeffrey W. Lucas, The University of Akron and Michael J. Lovaglia, The University of Iowa<\/div>\n<p><strong>INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In<br \/>\nthis paper, we describe a study in which we investigate attitudes<br \/>\nheld by student-athletes and non-athlete students towards<br \/>\nacademic and athletic success. Athletic success is largely<br \/>\nviewed in the United States as a vehicle for disadvantaged<br \/>\nstudents to attain higher education. Most colleges and universities<br \/>\nin the U.S. have admittance programs in which a designated<br \/>\npercent of students who do not meet standard admissions criteria<br \/>\nare allowed to enroll. According to the National Collegiate<br \/>\nAthletic Association (1995), about 3% of all students enter<br \/>\ncollege under these programs. However, more than 20% of college<br \/>\nfootball and basketball players enter universities under special<br \/>\nadmittance programs (Lapchick 1995). Thus, athletic prowess<br \/>\nmay allow for an increased opportunity for education.<\/p>\n<p>While<br \/>\nsuccessful high school athletes may have increased educational<br \/>\nopportunities, these students often struggle when they enter<br \/>\ncollege. College athletes earn fewer bachelor&#8217;s degrees than<br \/>\ndo students in general, they take longer to do so, their grades<br \/>\nare lower, and their curricula are less demanding (Adelman<br \/>\n1990).<\/p>\n<p>Some<br \/>\nhave also argued for the social benefit of sport participating.<br \/>\nFindings indicate that sport involvement is an important activity<br \/>\nthat has the potential for reducing at-risk behavior and enhancing<br \/>\ndevelopment in adolescents (Agnew and Peterson 1989; Burling,<br \/>\nSeidner, Robbins-Sisco, and Krinsky 1992). However, student-athletes<br \/>\nreport greater difficulty than other students in taking leadership<br \/>\nroles, learning from their mistakes, discussing their personal<br \/>\nproblems, and articulating their thoughts (Dudley, Johnson,<br \/>\nand Johnson 1997).<\/p>\n<p>One<br \/>\nreason that student-athletes struggle in college may be that<br \/>\nathletes have unrealistic expectations for careers in professional<br \/>\nsports. While a relatively high percentage of university athletes<br \/>\nexpect careers in professional sports (Center for the Study<br \/>\nof Athletics 1989; Kennedy and Dimick 1987) a professional<br \/>\nsports career is not an option for any but the most elite<br \/>\nof student athletes (Lapchick 1991).<\/p>\n<p>It<br \/>\nappears that student-athletes are diverted into athletic career<br \/>\naspirations and away from mainstream opportunities for success,<br \/>\nsuch as academic achievement. In that student-athletes often<br \/>\nstruggle academically and socially in college, it may be that<br \/>\nathletes expect greater costs and fewer benefits to accompany<br \/>\na university education than do other students. We predict<br \/>\nthat student-athletes, in comparison to scholars (not athletes),<br \/>\nwill indicate higher expectations for costs and fewer expectations<br \/>\nfor benefits to obtain from a successful university education.<\/p>\n<p>Athletes<br \/>\nalso often hold unrealistic expectations for professional<br \/>\nsports careers. We predict that student-athletes will expect<br \/>\nlower costs and higher benefits to accompany sport involvement<br \/>\nthan will scholars (not athletes). And, because of expectations<br \/>\nfor careers in professional sports, we also predict that athletes<br \/>\nwill indicate lower motivation toward school performance and<br \/>\nhigher motivation toward athletic performance than will scholars.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SURVEY<br \/>\nINSTRUMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\ndesigned two survey instruments to measure the costs and benefits<br \/>\nthat students expect to accompany academic and athletic success,<br \/>\nas well as motivation to perform both athletically and academically.<br \/>\nWe designed one instrument, the <em>Student Academic Questionnaire<\/em><br \/>\n(SAQ), to measure attitudes towards academic success and the<br \/>\nother instrument, the <em>Student Assessment Survey<\/em> (SAS),<br \/>\nto measure attitudes towards athletic success.<\/p>\n<p>Each<br \/>\nrespondent is assigned one of the two questionnaires. After<br \/>\nanswering a number of demographic items, the respondent reads<br \/>\na brief vignette. The vignette for the SAQ informs students<br \/>\nthat the researchers are interested in looking at ways that<br \/>\nindividuals feel about academic success. Respondents are asked<br \/>\nto imagine themselves in a scenario in which they are successful<br \/>\nuniversity students. The vignette for the SAS tells students<br \/>\nthat the researchers are interested in measuring attitudes<br \/>\nabout athletic success. Respondents read a vignette in which<br \/>\nthey are successful university athletes.<\/p>\n<p>Imagining<br \/>\nthemselves in the given scenario, respondents answer a number<br \/>\nof attitude questions designed to measure the costs, benefits,<br \/>\nand performance motivation they feel towards academic or athletic<br \/>\nachievement. We included three scales (each containing between<br \/>\n8 and 18 items) in the attitude questions, one for academic<br \/>\nor athletic costs, one for academic or athletic benefits,<br \/>\nand one for performance motivation. Questions in each scale<br \/>\nwere identical across questionnaires except that we included<br \/>\ninformation about academic success in questions on the SAQ<br \/>\nand information about athletic success in questions on the<br \/>\nSAS. Respondents answered all questions on 5-point scales<br \/>\nfrom &#8220;Strongly Agree&#8221; to &#8220;Strongly Disagree.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>PREDICTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\nmake the following predictions regarding the costs, benefits,<br \/>\nand motivations that non-athlete scholars and student-athletes<br \/>\nwill feel towards academic and athletic success:<\/p>\n<p>Hypothesis<br \/>\n1: Student-athletes, in comparison to scholars (non-athletes)<br \/>\nwill<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li type=\"a\">anticipate higher costs accompanying a college education,<\/li>\n<li>anticipate<br \/>\nlower benefits accompanying a college education, and<\/li>\n<li>be<br \/>\nless motivated to perform at a high level academically.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Hypothesis<br \/>\n2: Student-athletes, in comparison to scholars (non-athletes)<br \/>\nwill<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li type=\"a\">anticipate lower costs accompanying athletic success,<\/li>\n<li>anticipate<br \/>\nhigher benefits accompanying athletic success, and<\/li>\n<li>be<br \/>\nless motivated to perform at a high level athletically.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In<br \/>\norder to test the hypotheses described above, we passed out<br \/>\nthe SAQ and the SAS to samples of students at The University<br \/>\nof Akron, The University of Iowa, Kent State University, and<br \/>\nLouisiana State University. Among the demographic items on<br \/>\nthe questionnaires, we designed six questions to measure whether<br \/>\nwe should classify respondents as scholars, athletes, or both.<br \/>\nWe asked respondents their high school academic and sports<br \/>\ninvolvement, their academic and athletic scholarship status<br \/>\nin college, and whether they viewed themselves primarily as<br \/>\nscholars or athletes.<\/p>\n<p>The<br \/>\nthree items we designed to measure athletic status showed<br \/>\nstrong correlations with each other-all correlations produced<br \/>\nprobability levels less than .001. The same is true for the<br \/>\nitems designed to measure academic status. Because correlations<br \/>\nbetween items were so high, we chose one item, the extent<br \/>\nto which respondents considered themselves scholars or athletes,<br \/>\nas our measure of academic or athletic status.<\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\nasked respondents two questions to evaluate the extent to<br \/>\nwhich they considered themselves primarily athletes or scholars,<br \/>\nwith 1 indicating &#8220;very much&#8221; and 9 indicating &#8220;not<br \/>\nat all.&#8221; If respondents circled 4 or lower on the scholar<br \/>\nscale and greater than 5 on the athletic scale, we considered<br \/>\nthem scholars in our analysis. If respondents circled greater<br \/>\nthan 5 on the scholar scale and 4 or less on the athletic<br \/>\nscale, we considered them athletes for our analysis. Again,<br \/>\nanswers to these questions correlated highly with high school<br \/>\nathletic involvement and with academic or athletic scholarship<br \/>\nstatus.<\/p>\n<p><em>SAQ<br \/>\nFindings<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The<br \/>\nSAQ measured the costs, benefits, and motivation that students<br \/>\nfelt towards academic success. In all, 302 students completed<br \/>\nthe SAQ, 135 scholars and 33 athletes. We predicted that student-athletes<br \/>\nwould perceive greater costs for academic success than would<br \/>\nscholars. The cost of success scale is an average of the fourteen<br \/>\nitems designed to measure the costs of academic success, with<br \/>\n1 indicating low costs of academic success and 6 indicating<br \/>\nhigh costs. The mean score on the SAQ cost of success scale<br \/>\nfor scholars was 1.42 (st. dev. = .47) and for student-athletes<br \/>\nwas 1.53 (st. dev. = .52). This difference is in the predicted<br \/>\ndirection-athletes perceive higher costs for academic success<br \/>\nthan do scholars. A t-test of the difference, however, is<br \/>\nnot significant (t = 1.167, one-tailed p = .123).<\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\nalso predicted that student-athletes would perceive fewer<br \/>\nbenefits to accompany academic success than would scholars.<br \/>\nThe mean score for scholars on the benefits of academic success<br \/>\nscale was 3.10 (st. dev. = .60) and for athletes was 2.80<br \/>\n(st. dev. = .69). This difference indicates that scholars<br \/>\nexpect higher benefits for academic success than do athletes.<br \/>\nFurther, a t-test of the difference is significant (t = 2.47,<br \/>\none-tailed p = .008).<\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\nfurther predicted that student-athletes would indicate lower<br \/>\nmotivation to perform academically than would scholars. The<br \/>\nmean score for scholars on the academic motivation scale was<br \/>\n3.34 (st. dev. = .52) and for student-athletes was 3.02 (st.<br \/>\ndev. = .55). This difference is in the predicted direction,<br \/>\nand a t-test of the difference produces significance (t =<br \/>\n3.16, one-tailed p = .001).<\/p>\n<p><em>SAS<br \/>\nFindings<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The<br \/>\nSAS measured the costs, benefits, and motivation that students<br \/>\nfelt towards athletic success. 252 students completed the<br \/>\nSAS, 124 scholar and 23 athletes. We predicted that student-athletes<br \/>\nwould perceive fewer costs associated with athletic success<br \/>\nthan would scholars. Student-athletes had a mean score on<br \/>\nthe costs of athletic success scale of 1.97 (st. dev. = .61),<br \/>\nwhile scholars had a mean score of 1.88 (st. dev. = .52).<br \/>\nThis slight difference is actually in the opposite direction<br \/>\nof that predicted by our hypothesis, but a t-test of the difference<br \/>\ndoes not produce significance (t = .722, two-tailed p = .472).<\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\nalso predicted that student-athletes would perceive greater<br \/>\nbenefits to accompany athletic success than would scholars.<br \/>\nThe mean score on the benefits of athletic success scale for<br \/>\nstudent-athletes was 2.43 (st. dev. = .60) and for scholars<br \/>\nwas 2.20 (st. dev. = .93). This difference is in the predicted<br \/>\ndirection, but a t-test of the difference is not significant<br \/>\n(t = 1.11, one-tailed p = .135).<\/p>\n<p>We<br \/>\nalso predicted higher motivation towards athletic performance<br \/>\nfor student-athletes than for scholars. Student-athletes had<br \/>\na mean score on the athletic motivation scale of 3.52 (st.<br \/>\ndev. = .45), while scholars had a mean of 3.44 (st. dev. =<br \/>\n.57). This difference, while in the predicted direction, is<br \/>\nnot significant (t = .628, one-tailed p = .266).<\/p>\n<p>In<br \/>\nsum, two of the six hypotheses we tested (hypotheses on the<br \/>\nbenefits of academic success and on motivation to perform<br \/>\nacademically) produced significance. Two hypotheses (on the<br \/>\ncosts of academic success and on the benefits of athletic<br \/>\nsuccess) approached significance. The hypotheses on the costs<br \/>\nof athletic success and on athletic motivation did not approach<br \/>\nsignificance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DISCUSSION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Results<br \/>\nof our data collection provided partial support for our predictions.<br \/>\nStudent-athletes, in comparison to scholars, perceived greater<br \/>\ncosts and fewer benefits to accompany a university education.<br \/>\nFurther, student-athletes were less motivated to perform academically<br \/>\nthan were scholars. These findings support our predictions<br \/>\nand are in line with findings that athletes struggle academically.<br \/>\nFindings on the costs and benefits of athletic success received<br \/>\nless support.<\/p>\n<p>Our<br \/>\nfindings provide some support for our argument that athletics<br \/>\nserves to channel a disadvantaged minority away from mainstream<br \/>\nopportunities for success in the United States. If this is<br \/>\ntrue, then expectations about success in athletics and academics<br \/>\nmay differ in countries were athletics does not serve this<br \/>\npurpose. It also may be that respondents in countries with<br \/>\nless rigid racial, economic, and ethnic partitions than the<br \/>\nUnited States will report smaller differences in their expected<br \/>\ncosts for academic and athletic success. A valuable direction<br \/>\nfor future research would be to shed light on these issues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>REFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Adelman,<br \/>\nC. (1990). Light and Shadows on College Athletics. Washington,<br \/>\nDC: U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>Agnew,<br \/>\nR. and D.M. Peterson (1989). &#8220;Leisure and delinquency.&#8221;<br \/>\nSocial Problems, 36(4), 332-250.<\/p>\n<p>Burling,<br \/>\nT.A., A.L. Seidner, D. Robbins-Sisco, and A. Krinsky (1992).<br \/>\n&#8220;Relapse prevention for homeless veteran substance abusers<br \/>\nvia softball team participation.&#8221; Journal of Substance<br \/>\nAbuse, 4(4), 407-413.<\/p>\n<p>Center<br \/>\nfor the Study of Athletics (1989). Report No. 3: The Experiences<br \/>\nof Black Intercollegiate Athletes at NCAA Division I institutions.<br \/>\nPalo Alto, CA: American Institute for Research.<\/p>\n<p>Dudley,<br \/>\nB.S., D.W. Johnson, and R.T. Johnson. (1997). &#8220;Using<br \/>\ncooperative learning to enhance the academic and social experiences<br \/>\nof freshman student athletes.&#8221; The Journal of Social<br \/>\nPsychology, 137(4), 449-459.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy,<br \/>\nS.R., and K.M. Dimick. (1987). &#8220;Career maturity and professional<br \/>\nsports expectations of college football and basketball players.&#8221;<br \/>\nJournal of College Student Personnel, 28, 293-297.<\/p>\n<p>Lapchick,<br \/>\nR. (1991). Five Minutes to Midnight: Race and Sports in the<br \/>\n1990&#8217;s. Lanham, MD: Madison Books.<\/p>\n<p>Lapchick,<br \/>\nR.E. (1995). &#8220;Race and college sport: A long way to go.&#8221;<br \/>\nRace and Class, 36(4), 87-94.<\/p>\n<p>National<br \/>\nCollegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). (1995). 1995 Division<br \/>\nI Graduation-Rates Report. Overland Park, KS: Author.<\/p>\n<p>Contact<br \/>\ninformation:<\/p>\n<p>Jeffrey<br \/>\nW. Lucas<br \/>\nAssistant Professor, Department of Sociology<br \/>\nThe University of Akron<br \/>\nAkron, OH 44325-1905<br \/>\n(330) 972-6915<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:jlucas2@uakron.edu\">jlucas2@uakron.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"submitted\">Submitted by:Jeffrey W. Lucas, The University of Akron and Michael J. Lovaglia, The University of Iowa<\/div>\n<p><strong>INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In<br \/>\n                    this paper, we describe a study in which we investigate attitudes<br \/>\n                    held by student-athletes and non-athlete students towards<br \/>\n                    academic and athletic success. Athletic success is largely<br \/>\n                    viewed in the United States as a vehicle for disadvantaged<br \/>\n                    students to attain higher education. Most colleges and universities<br \/>\n                    in the U.S. have admittance programs in which a designated<br \/>\n                    percent of students who do not meet standard admissions criteria<br \/>\n                    are allowed to enroll. According to the National Collegiate<br \/>\n                    Athletic Association (1995), about 3% of all students enter<br \/>\n                    college under these programs. However, more than 20% of college<br \/>\n                    football and basketball players enter universities under special<br \/>\n                    admittance programs (Lapchick 1995). Thus, athletic prowess<br \/>\n                    may allow for an increased opportunity for education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[290,293,291],"tags":[38,45,8,23],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4btio-1X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":272,"url":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/non-economic-societal-impacts-of-intercollegiate-athletics\/","url_meta":{"origin":121,"position":0},"title":"Non-Economic Societal Impacts of Intercollegiate Athletics","date":"March 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Submitted by: David Larimore, Ph.D & George Chitiyo, Ph.D Abstract: Intercollegiate athletics impact society in numerous positive ways. A number of studies have been done seeking to establish the effects of these sports programs on athletes, their institutions, and society at large. This paper is a synthesis of the literature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Contemporary Sports Issues&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/a-comparison-of-academic-athletic-eligibility-in-interscholastic-sports-in-american-high-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":121,"position":1},"title":"A Comparison of Academic Athletic Eligibility in Interscholastic Sports in American High Schools","date":"February 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Submitted by: Dr. Bruce J. Bukowski Academic eligibility for student-athletes in public high schools athletic programs across America has many variations and has been changing over the past twenty years. But how far have we come in motivating athletes in the classroom? The term student-athlete implies that the person involved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports Management&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/can-academic-progress-help-collegiate-football-teams-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":121,"position":2},"title":"Can Academic Progress Help Collegiate Football Teams Win?","date":"June 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Submitted by: Jeffrey W. Lucas & Michael J. Lovaglia INTRODUCTION Recently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released its first Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores for its football and basketball programs. The APR measures how well athletic programs educate student athletes and will be used to sanction programs that do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Contemporary Sports Issues&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":362,"url":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/making-the-grade\/","url_meta":{"origin":121,"position":3},"title":"Making the Grade:  Academic Success in Today\u2019s Athlete","date":"January 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Jennifer Dilley-Knoles, North Central Texas College; Jeffrey S. Burnett, Fort Hays State University; Kayla W. Peak, Tarleton State University Abstract The overall importance placed on an athlete\u2019s academic eligibility can be extremely stressful for both the coach and the student-athlete. In order to compete the athlete must remain academically eligible;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Contemporary Sports Issues&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/intercollegiate-athletics-vs-academics-the-student-athlete-or-the-athlete-student\/","url_meta":{"origin":121,"position":4},"title":"Intercollegiate Athletics vs. Academics: The Student-Athlete or the Athlete-Student","date":"November 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Christopher Saffici, Ed. D, Robert Pellegrino, DBA ABSTRACT Athletic programs at many colleges and universities are inconsistent with the school\u2019s mission statements. The term \u201cstudent-athlete\u201d basically means that they are students first, and then athletes. We have reached a point here it can be argued that they are instead more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Contemporary Sports Issues&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3376,"url":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/article\/an-investigation-into-factors-that-contribute-to-the-perception-of-disparities-between-academic-achievement-and-athletic-participation-in-high-school-student-athletes\/","url_meta":{"origin":121,"position":5},"title":"An Investigation into Factors that Contribute to the Perception of Disparities between Academic Achievement and Athletic Participation in High School Student-Athletes","date":"December 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Submitted by Dr. Kechia Seabrooks Rowles*(1) (1)Athletic Coordinator for Rockdale County Public Schools in Conyers, Ga. *Corresponding Author Dr. Kechia Seabrooks Rowles United States Sports Academy 85 Fox Glove Drive Covington, GA 30016 krowles@rockdale.k12.ga.us ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare various factors that contribute to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Contemporary Sports Issues&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1208,"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesportjournal.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}