For 100 years, researchers have argued that sport builds moral character, arguing that sport builds qualities of honesty, responsibility, and justice. Research, involving all NCAA divisions, schools with a Christian mission, high schools, and NAIA schools, has been consistent and found that sport does not build athletes’ ability to reason morally about commonly occurring issues in sport. Male team sport athletes, in particular revenue producing sports, appear to be the most highly negatively affected by the competitive environment, scoring significantly lower than individual sport athletes. Female athletes have consistently scored significantly higher than male athletes, yet female team sport athletes score significantly lower than their individual sport peers. Considering this research, the NCAA mandated life skills intervention programs to improve social responsibility. These programs have been in place since the early 1990s. One would assume that moral reasoning about justice issues would improve. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare moral reasoning results of current student athletes from 2014 to the 1989 findings in one Division I institution with a strong Life Skills program.
Method:
Participants were males (n=18) and females (n=44), team sport and individual sport athletes from one Division I institution. Participants completed the HBVCI, a valid inventory for measuring moral reasoning (based in honesty, responsibility, & justice) in sport (Cronbach = .84 current study; range .77-.89 all studies). The possible range of scores was 12-60, with the higher the score the higher the level of moral reasoning. ANOVA procedures were run with alpha set at p<.05.
Analysis/Results:
ANOVA results found that females (M = 43.59 + 6.93) scored significantly higher compared to males (38.33 + 8.74), F (1, 58) = 5.24, p = .026, partial eta2 = .083. Individual sport athletes (M = 44.48 + 7.9 ) scored significantly higher compared to team sport (37.95 + 5.76) F (1, 58) = 7.52, p = .008, partial eta2 = .115.
Conclusions:
The current study is consistent with results from 25 years ago. Male revenue producing sport athletes score lowest on issues of honesty, responsibility, and justice. The intervention program does not appear able to overcome the historical and current competitive milieu of sport as athlete moral reasoning scores reflect similarly to the low scores of 25 years ago. This appears troubling relative to social justice issues in sport. Further research should concentrate on whether life skills programs address greatly needed social justice work in sport.