Within athletic domains, athletic identity is a cognitive structure guiding and organizing how the person processes self-related information (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993). Being one of the domains of the self-concept, athletic identity is the “degree of importance, strength, and exclusivity attached to the athlete role that is maintained by the athletes and influenced by environment” (p. 39; Cieslak, 2005). Previous studies have shown that athletic identity is related to various psychological processes such as identity foreclosure and the emotional reactions of athletes to injuries (Grove, Lavallee, & Gordon, 1997). Few studies have examined this concept among African American Division II athletes. The purpose of this study was to identify athletic identity among African American college student athletes.
Method:
A convenient sample of student-athletes from classes in the Department of Health and Human Performance at a small southeastern private historically black college and university was utilized in the study. Athletic Identity was measured using the Modified version of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale The responses on the questionnaire ranged from 1 to 7 on a Likert scale with 1 being strongly disagree to 5 being strongly agree.
Analysis/Results:
Independent t-test and ANOVA were utilized to determine the differences between the demographic categories and the athletic identity, alpha = .05. Students reported means above 3.0 for the following questions, “I consider myself an athlete”, “I have many goals related to sports”, “Most of my friends are athletes”, “Sport is the most important part of my life”, “Other people see me mainly as an athlete”, “I feel bad about myself when I do poorly in sport”, and I would be very depressed if I were injured and could not compete in sport. There was a significant difference between classification and gender and the student athlete’s perception of athletic identity. Seniors reported a higher score when compared to freshman in regards to the question “I have many goals related to sports” and “Other people see me mainly as an athlete”. Males reported higher scores in regards to the questions “I have many goals related to sports” and “Other people see me mainly as an athlete”.
Conclusions:
Results from this study are similar to others in regards to the perception of the athletic identity of Division II student athletes. Recommendations are made to further examine athletic identity among African American college student athletes at other institutions such as non-historic black institutions.