Date of Graduation
2001
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Career maturity is operationally defined as the readiness of an individual to make informed, age-appropriate career decisions and cope with career development tasks (King, 1990; Savickas, 1984). The matched sample consisted of a total of 344 participants including college freshmen student-athletes (n = 107), freshmen non-student-athletes (n = 107), senior student-athletes (n = 65), and senior non-student-athletes (n = 65). It was hypothesized that there would be significant, positive relationships between the psychosocial variables of educational involvement (EI), career planning (CP), career decision making self-efficacy (CDMSE), and career locus of control (CLCS), and significant, negative relationships between these measures and athletic identity (AI). Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between each of the dependent, independent and demographic variables for both the student-athlete group, non-student-athlete group and overall sample. A series of 2 x 2 ANOVAS (athletic status x class status) were calculated to determine significant differences between the four subgroups on career maturity. There was a significant main effect for grade level on five measures: SDTLI-CP, SDTLI-EI, AIMS, CDMSE and CMI. It was also hypothesized that there would be a difference between participants of different academic stages (i.e., freshmen and seniors), athletic status, gender and race on the psychosocial and self-reported behavioral measures of career maturity. A third hypothesis was that EI, CP, CDMSE, CLCS and AI would predict career maturity scores for each subgroup and the overall sample after accounting for demographic variables. Multiple regression analyses found CLCS and CP scores on the SDTLI to be the most significant predictors of career maturity scores for freshmen student-athletes. The primary predictors for each subgroup were presented and discussed. The primary practical implication for helping professionals working with student-athletes is to encourage identification of psychosocial constructs which may reliably predict career maturity as an essential step in assisting college students in the career development process. Further, barriers for student-athletes to accept services and methods to overcome such barriers are explored.
Recommended Citation
Ahlgren, Rebecca L., "An investigation of demographic, psychosocial and self-reported behavioral influences on career maturity levels of college student-athletes." (2001). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 8359.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/8359