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

Abstract

While considerable academic attention has been given to the college selection process of student athletes, it has typically relied strictly on survey responses to determine the relative importance of numerous factors. This research applied means-end theory to the problem of understanding college selection among female student athletes at an NCAA Division II university. Through interviews with participants (N=25), the researchers were able to utilize the laddering technique (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988) to identify not only attributes of the university that were salient to the participants as they made their college selection, but also to probe deeper to determine the underlying values that made the factors important. The values cited by participants were security, achievement, belonging, and fun and enjoyment. This study highlights the function of means-end analysis to investigate college selection among student athletes going beyond the superficial identification of important factors. Via means-end interviews, researchers can determine why varied factors are important to individuals.