United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"

INTRODUCTION

In this paper, we describe a study in which we investigate attitudes held by student-athletes and non-athlete students towards academic and athletic success. Athletic success is largely viewed in the United States as a vehicle for disadvantaged students to attain higher education. Most colleges and universities in the U.S. have admittance programs in which a designated percent of students who do not meet standard admissions criteria are allowed to enroll. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (1995), about 3% of all students enter college under these programs. However, more than 20% of college football and basketball players enter universities under special admittance programs (Lapchick 1995). Thus, athletic prowess may allow for an increased opportunity for education.

While successful high school athletes may have increased educational opportunities, these students often struggle when they enter college. College athletes earn fewer bachelor's degrees than do students in general, they take longer to do so, their grades are lower, and their curricula are less demanding (Adelman 1990).

Some have also argued for the social benefit of sport participating. Findings indicate that sport involvement is an important activity that has the potential for reducing at-risk behavior and enhancing development in adolescents (Agnew and Peterson 1989; Burling, Seidner, Robbins-Sisco, and Krinsky 1992). However, student-athletes report greater difficulty than other students in taking leadership roles, learning from their mistakes, discussing their personal problems, and articulating their thoughts (Dudley, Johnson, and Johnson 1997).

One reason that student-athletes struggle in college may be that athletes have unrealistic expectations for careers in professional sports. While a relatively high percentage of university athletes expect careers in professional sports (Center for the Study of Athletics 1989; Kennedy and Dimick 1987) a professional sports career is not an option for any but the most elite of student athletes (Lapchick 1991).

It appears that student-athletes are diverted into athletic career aspirations and away from mainstream opportunities for success, such as academic achievement. In that student-athletes often struggle academically and socially in college, it may be that athletes expect greater costs and fewer benefits to accompany a university education than do other students. We predict that student-athletes, in comparison to scholars (not athletes), will indicate higher expectations for costs and fewer expectations for benefits to obtain from a successful university education.

Athletes also often hold unrealistic expectations for professional sports careers. We predict that student-athletes will expect lower costs and higher benefits to accompany sport involvement than will scholars (not athletes). And, because of expectations for careers in professional sports, we also predict that athletes will indicate lower motivation toward school performance and higher motivation toward athletic performance than will scholars.

SURVEY INSTRUMENTS

We designed two survey instruments to measure the costs and benefits that students expect to accompany academic and athletic success, as well as motivation to perform both athletically and academically. We designed one instrument, the Student Academic Questionnaire (SAQ), to measure attitudes towards academic success and the other instrument, the Student Assessment Survey (SAS), to measure attitudes towards athletic success.

Each respondent is assigned one of the two questionnaires. After answering a number of demographic items, the respondent reads a brief vignette. The vignette for the SAQ informs students that the researchers are interested in looking at ways that individuals feel about academic success. Respondents are asked to imagine themselves in a scenario in which they are successful university students. The vignette for the SAS tells students that the researchers are interested in measuring attitudes about athletic success. Respondents read a vignette in which they are successful university athletes.

Imagining themselves in the given scenario, respondents answer a number of attitude questions designed to measure the costs, benefits, and performance motivation they feel towards academic or athletic achievement. We included three scales (each containing between 8 and 18 items) in the attitude questions, one for academic or athletic costs, one for academic or athletic benefits, and one for performance motivation. Questions in each scale were identical across questionnaires except that we included information about academic success in questions on the SAQ and information about athletic success in questions on the SAS. Respondents answered all questions on 5-point scales from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree."

PREDICTIONS

We make the following predictions regarding the costs, benefits, and motivations that non-athlete scholars and student-athletes will feel towards academic and athletic success:

Hypothesis 1: Student-athletes, in comparison to scholars (non-athletes) will

1. anticipate higher costs accompanying a college education,
2. anticipate lower benefits accompanying a college education, and
3. be less motivated to perform at a high level academically.

Hypothesis 2: Student-athletes, in comparison to scholars (non-athletes) will

1. anticipate lower costs accompanying athletic success,
2. anticipate higher benefits accompanying athletic success, and
3. be less motivated to perform at a high level athletically.

RESULTS

In order to test the hypotheses described above, we passed out the SAQ and the SAS to samples of students at The University of Akron, The University of Iowa, Kent State University, and Louisiana State University. Among the demographic items on the questionnaires, we designed six questions to measure whether we should classify respondents as scholars, athletes, or both. We asked respondents their high school academic and sports involvement, their academic and athletic scholarship status in college, and whether they viewed themselves primarily as scholars or athletes.

The three items we designed to measure athletic status showed strong correlations with each other-all correlations produced probability levels less than .001. The same is true for the items designed to measure academic status. Because correlations between items were so high, we chose one item, the extent to which respondents considered themselves scholars or athletes, as our measure of academic or athletic status.

We asked respondents two questions to evaluate the extent to which they considered themselves primarily athletes or scholars, with 1 indicating "very much" and 9 indicating "not at all." If respondents circled 4 or lower on the scholar scale and greater than 5 on the athletic scale, we considered them scholars in our analysis. If respondents circled greater than 5 on the scholar scale and 4 or less on the athletic scale, we considered them athletes for our analysis. Again, answers to these questions correlated highly with high school athletic involvement and with academic or athletic scholarship status.

SAQ Findings

The SAQ measured the costs, benefits, and motivation that students felt towards academic success. In all, 302 students completed the SAQ, 135 scholars and 33 athletes. We predicted that student-athletes would perceive greater costs for academic success than would scholars. The cost of success scale is an average of the fourteen items designed to measure the costs of academic success, with 1 indicating low costs of academic success and 6 indicating high costs. The mean score on the SAQ cost of success scale for scholars was 1.42 (st. dev. = .47) and for student-athletes was 1.53 (st. dev. = .52). This difference is in the predicted direction-athletes perceive higher costs for academic success than do scholars. A t-test of the difference, however, is not significant (t = 1.167, one-tailed p = .123).

We also predicted that student-athletes would perceive fewer benefits to accompany academic success than would scholars. The mean score for scholars on the benefits of academic success scale was 3.10 (st. dev. = .60) and for athletes was 2.80 (st. dev. = .69). This difference indicates that scholars expect higher benefits for academic success than do athletes. Further, a t-test of the difference is significant (t = 2.47, one-tailed p = .008).

We further predicted that student-athletes would indicate lower motivation to perform academically than would scholars. The mean score for scholars on the academic motivation scale was 3.34 (st. dev. = .52) and for student-athletes was 3.02 (st. dev. = .55). This difference is in the predicted direction, and a t-test of the difference produces significance (t = 3.16, one-tailed p = .001).

SAS Findings

The SAS measured the costs, benefits, and motivation that students felt towards athletic success. 252 students completed the SAS, 124 scholar and 23 athletes. We predicted that student-athletes would perceive fewer costs associated with athletic success than would scholars. Student-athletes had a mean score on the costs of athletic success scale of 1.97 (st. dev. = .61), while scholars had a mean score of 1.88 (st. dev. = .52). This slight difference is actually in the opposite direction of that predicted by our hypothesis, but a t-test of the difference does not produce significance (t = .722, two-tailed p = .472).

We also predicted that student-athletes would perceive greater benefits to accompany athletic success than would scholars. The mean score on the benefits of athletic success scale for student-athletes was 2.43 (st. dev. = .60) and for scholars was 2.20 (st. dev. = .93). This difference is in the predicted direction, but a t-test of the difference is not significant (t = 1.11, one-tailed p = .135).

We also predicted higher motivation towards athletic performance for student-athletes than for scholars. Student-athletes had a mean score on the athletic motivation scale of 3.52 (st. dev. = .45), while scholars had a mean of 3.44 (st. dev. = .57). This difference, while in the predicted direction, is not significant (t = .628, one-tailed p = .266).

In sum, two of the six hypotheses we tested (hypotheses on the benefits of academic success and on motivation to perform academically) produced significance. Two hypotheses (on the costs of academic success and on the benefits of athletic success) approached significance. The hypotheses on the costs of athletic success and on athletic motivation did not approach significance.

DISCUSSION

Results of our data collection provided partial support for our predictions. Student-athletes, in comparison to scholars, perceived greater costs and fewer benefits to accompany a university education. Further, student-athletes were less motivated to perform academically than were scholars. These findings support our predictions and are in line with findings that athletes struggle academically. Findings on the costs and benefits of athletic success received less support.

Our findings provide some support for our argument that athletics serves to channel a disadvantaged minority away from mainstream opportunities for success in the United States. If this is true, then expectations about success in athletics and academics may differ in countries were athletics does not serve this purpose. It also may be that respondents in countries with less rigid racial, economic, and ethnic partitions than the United States will report smaller differences in their expected costs for academic and athletic success. A valuable direction for future research would be to shed light on these issues.

REFERENCES

Adelman, C. (1990). Light and Shadows on College Athletics. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Agnew, R. and D.M. Peterson (1989). "Leisure and delinquency." Social Problems, 36(4), 332-250.

Burling, T.A., A.L. Seidner, D. Robbins-Sisco, and A. Krinsky (1992). "Relapse prevention for homeless veteran substance abusers via softball team participation." Journal of Substance Abuse, 4(4), 407-413.

Center for the Study of Athletics (1989). Report No. 3: The Experiences of Black Intercollegiate Athletes at NCAA Division I institutions. Palo Alto, CA: American Institute for Research.

Dudley, B.S., D.W. Johnson, and R.T. Johnson. (1997). "Using cooperative learning to enhance the academic and social experiences of freshman student athletes." The Journal of Social Psychology, 137(4), 449-459.

Kennedy, S.R., and K.M. Dimick. (1987). "Career maturity and professional sports expectations of college football and basketball players." Journal of College Student Personnel, 28, 293-297.

Lapchick, R. (1991). Five Minutes to Midnight: Race and Sports in the 1990's. Lanham, MD: Madison Books.

Lapchick, R.E. (1995). "Race and college sport: A long way to go." Race and Class, 36(4), 87-94.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). (1995). 1995 Division I Graduation-Rates Report. Overland Park, KS: Author.

Contact information:

Jeffrey W. Lucas
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
The University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325-1905
(330) 972-6915
jlucas2@uakron.edu