ISSN: 1543-9518

Relative Age Effect Among Olympic Medalists: Evidence from Ten Summer and Winter Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018 

Authors: Christiana E. Hilmer, Michael J. Hilmer1

Corresponding Author:

Christiana Hilmer, PhD 

5500 Campanile Drive 

San Diego, CA 92182-4485 

[email protected] 

619-301-9388 


1Both: Department of Economics, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 

Christiana E. Hilmer, Ph.D., is a Professor of Economics at San Diego State University in San Diego, CA.  Her research interests include the economics of sports, applied econometrics, labor economics, and resource and environmental economics.   

Michael J. Hilmer, Ph.D., is a Professor of Economics at San Diego State University in San Diego, CA.  His research interests include the economics of sports, labor economics, and the economics of education. 

ABSTRACT

This study examines the Relative Age Effect (RAE) among 4,453 individual Olympic medalists from ten Olympic Games (five Summer and five Winter) held between 2000 and 2018. We analyze athletes’ birth quarters and ages at the time of competition to assess patterns by gender, event type, and medal outcome. Using descriptive statistics, regression analysis, a Pearson 𝜒2 test, and a logit model, we find that athletes in judged and combat events tend to be younger, while those in skill and endurance events tend to be older. Gold medalists are, on average, younger than bronze medalists and more likely to be born in the first half of the year. These results confirm the presence of RAE at the highest level of sport and suggest that early developmental advantages persist among Olympic medalists. The findings have implications for athlete development systems and elite sport selection criteria. 

Key Words: Athlete Development; Birth Quarter; Elite Sport, Logit Analysis, Pearson 𝝌𝟐 test 

INTRODUCTION

The Relative Age Effect (RAE) refers to the phenomenon in which individuals born earlier in a selected period, typically a calendar year, tend to benefit from developmental advantages over their younger peers within the same cohort.  These advantages may include earlier physical growth, cognitive maturity, and better access to competitive opportunities.  This concept was described by Barnsley and Thompson (3) in Canadian youth hockey, where players born in the first half of the year were disproportionately over-represented.  RAE has since been documented across various sports, including professional baseball (Thompson, Barnsley, and Stebelsky (14)), elite youth soccer (Glamser and Vincent (7)), youth swimming (Costa et al. (5)) and basketball (Werneck et al. (17)).  Extensive empirical evidence over the last three decades has confirmed its presence in multiple athletic and academic domains (Musch and Grondin (11); Patiño et al. (12)). Researchers have also explored alternative approaches to identifying RAEs by comparing athletes’ relative ages at the time of competition (Zetaruk (18) and Longo et al. (10)). Yet little is known about whether RAE endures at the pinnacle of sports performance. 

Many past studies have focused on youth and amateur athletes, where selection systems, age-based groupings, and physical maturation exert considerable influence.  However, less is known about whether RAE persists at the highest levels of athletic achievement.  The Olympic Games, which represent peak international competition, provide a valuable lens to explore whether early developmental advantages have long-term consequences that extend into elite performance.   

The Olympic context introduces additional layers of complexity.  Events vary widely in physical demands, skill development, and peak performance age.  For instance, judged events such as gymnastics and ice skating often feature younger athletes (Zetaruk (18) and Cummins (6)) while skill and endurance events, such as archery, cross-country skiing, and the marathon typically feature older athletes (Longo et al. (10)).  Seasonal differences between Summer and Winter Games, and gender specific trajectories, also warrant attention. 

Although prior research has examined RAE in Olympic contexts, findings have been mixed.  Baker et al. (2) find evidence of the RAE in skiing, snowboarding, and Nordic combined, find no evidence for figure skaters, and report an atypical pattern in gymnastics.  Joyner et al. (9) find evidence of RAE across multiple sports but note variation by gender and season.  Raschner et al. (13) analyzed data from the first Winter Youth Olympic Games and found evidence of RAE in both genders and across strength, endurance, and technique-related sports.  This study differs by focusing exclusively on Olympic medalists – those who reached the highest level in their sport – to determine whether RAE persists not just in participation, but in podium success. 

This study analyzes 4,453 individual medalists from ten Olympic games (five Summer and five Winter) between 2000 and 2018. We classify events into six categories (timed, judged, skill, endurance, strength, and combat), and examine both the athletes’ age at the time of competition and their birth quarter. The central research questions are (1) Are Olympic medalists disproportionately born in the earlier quarters of the calendar year? (2) Does the probability of winning a gold medal vary by birth quarter? and (3) Are athletes’ ages at the time of competition systematically associated with event type, gender, or Olympic season? This study expands the literature by analyzing RAE by event type among Olympic medalists across both Summer and Winter Games. 

METHODS

This study examines 4,453 medalists (gold, silver, and bronze) from ten Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018 – five Summer Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016) and five Winter Games (Salt Lake City 2002, Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018).  Data were compiled from official Olympic databases during 2019.  Athlete biographies were consulted to ensure accuracy regarding birthdates, event categories, and medal results.  Medalists disqualified as of December 2019 due to doping violations were excluded from this analysis.  

Athletes were categorized by type of event into six mutually exclusive groups: timed/weight/measured, judged, skill, endurance, strength, and combat. Hilmer and Hilmer (8) apply these same categories to investigate the presence of confirmation bias in judged events at the Olympic Games.  The first category is timed/weight/measured, where competitors start together and medal winners are determined by that individual competition (henceforth referred to, for lack of a better term, as “timed events”), such as the 100-meter dash, canoe, and downhill skiing.  Judged events rely on subjective scoring either fully (ie, figure skating) or partially (ie, mogul skiing).  The next category is skill events such as archery, shooting, and table tennis.  The fourth category is endurance events that take a relatively long time to complete, such as biathlon, cross-country skiing, and the marathon.  Strength is the fifth category of event, which includes weightlifting, shot put, and hammer throw.  The final category of events is combat, which includes boxing, judo, taekwondo, and wrestling.  Team sports were not included in this analysis because we are interested in an individual’s age and birth quarter at the time of competition.  A team is comprised of a variety of individuals with various birth dates, which makes it difficult to isolate the impact of birth quarter and age at the time of competition.  Thus, team events such as soccer, softball, basketball, and relays are excluded from this analysis. Age was calculated in days at the time of competition, and birth quarters were based on the calendar year: Q1 (January-March), Q2 (April-June), Q3 (July-September), and Q4 (October-December). 

Table 1 presents the breakdown of the medal winners for each of the Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018.  The Summer Olympics have the bulk of the athletes, with 78% of the medal winners, while 22% of the medal winners compete in the Winter Games.  The number of athletes winning individual medals has increased steadily over the years.  Individual sports added to the Olympic Games during this time were skeleton in 2002, BMX racing in 2008, and golf in 2016. 

The dependent variables are either type of medal, gold, silver or bronze, and how old the athlete is in days at the time of competition.  The independent variables are quarter of birth (Q1 = Jan-Mar, Q2 = Apr – June, Q3 = Jul – Sept, Q4 = Oct – Dec), gender, season, and event type (timed, judged, skill, endurance, strength, combat). Table 2 presents the percentage of competitors in the types of events, medals earned, and quarter of birth, broken down by male and female medal winners and Summer and Winter Games.  As evident from Table 2, the timed category has the most competitors with 45% of the medal winners, ranging from 40% in the Summer Games to 60% in the Winter Games.  Skill, Strength, and Combat award all of their medals in the Summer Games.  Judged events comprise 10% of the medals, while skill has 11% of the medals.  The endurance category has 7% of the medals overall but it is an important component of the Winter Games, with almost a quarter of the medals earned falling within this category.  

Under random distribution, one would expect medals to be evenly divided among the three categories. According to Table 2, bronze medals account for 36% of the overall awards.  Similarly, we would expect the athletes’ birth quarters to be split evenly, with each having 25% of the medal winners if there is no presence of RAE. The first quarter has the most medal winners at 26%, while the last quarter has the least amount of medal winners at 23%, which is a statistically significant difference with a z-score of 3.07 and a p-value of 0.0022. 

Table 3 provides means and standard deviations for how many days old the medalists were when they competed in their event.  The average age of a medalist is 26.3 years old with a standard deviation of 4.8 years, with men at an average of 26.57 and with women at 25.94.  This is similar to the finding of Longo et al. (10), who analyzed all competitors from the 2012 Summer Olympics and found men were an average of 27 years old and women were an average of 26.2 years old.  Awosoga and Chow (1) find that the peak age for a track and field athlete is just under 27 years old, that finalists were on average 16 months older than the average competitor, and medalists were just one month older than the average participant. On average, the youngest medalists are those who compete in judged events, while the oldest medalists compete in skill and endurance events.  This holds across males and females and for the Summer and Winter Games. The age of the medalists is distributed fairly consistently between gold, silver, and bronze medals with the gold medalists being around 100 days younger than either silver or bronze medalists for the entire sample.  Males are older than females by 228 days while Winter medalists are older than Summer medalists by 241 days.   

Figure 1 is a kernel density function that depicts the age in days of the medalist by the type of event.  A kernel density function is a non-parametric method for visually representing the distribution of the data. Unlike a histogram, it is a smooth representation of the probability distribution function (Weglarczyk (16)) and is more informative than summary statistics because it shows the entire distribution of the data.  Judged events have the youngest athletes with the mass of the distribution primarily in the lower end of the age distribution.  Endurance has the bulk of its mass to the right of all of the other distributions, while skill events exceeds all of the other events at the very top of the age distribution.  Figure 2 compares the distributions for males and females.  Females have more medalists at the lower end of the distribution but the distributions are nearly identical at the top end of the age distribution.  Figure 3 is a kernel density function for the Winter and Summer Games.  The distribution for the Summer Games lies to the left of that for the Winter Games, suggesting that Summer medalists are younger than Winter medalists.  

RESULTS

Table 4 provides our first look into the presence of an RAE within Olympic medal winners with a two-way table between birth quarter and type of medal.  The Pearson 𝜒2 test statistic for differences among the categories is 14.12 with a p-value of 0.028.  The Cramér’s V p-value of 0.0398 suggests that the observed association between birth quarter and medal type is unlikely to occur by chance.  Taken together, these results suggest that there is a statistical relationship between birth-quarter and type of medal.  The expected count is in parentheses and suggests that gold medal winners are over-represented for the first and second quarters of the year.  All statistical analysis for this paper is performed in STATA.    

Another option for analyzing the birth quarter of a medalist is to empirically assess whether it impacts their probability of winning a gold medal.  To accomplish this, we estimate a logit model of the form 

                      

 

(1) where gold is 1 if athlete i received a gold medal and 0 if they earned a silver or bronze medal, Q1, Q2, and Q3 are the quarter of their birth of individual i, with the fourth quarter as the omitted category, and εi is the error term.  The marginal effects are the change in the probability of the athlete winning a gold medal relative to the omitted category 

Table 5 presents the marginal effects from the logit model in equation (1).  Athletes who are born in the second quarter are 4.3% more likely to win a gold medal relative to those born in the fourth quarter at a 5% significance level.  Athletes born in the first and third quarters are not statistically more likely to win a gold medal than those born in the fourth quarter.   

In addition to examining how birth quarter impacts the medal received, we perform an empirical analysis to assess if the age of the athlete, measured in how many days old they were when they competed in their event, statistically differs for gender, type of Games, category of events, and medal type.  The most inclusive model takes the form: 

+  εi                            (2)

where εi is the error term. Each of the explanatory variables is binary with the value being 1 if the individual has the characteristic in the named variable and 0 otherwise.  For example, the variable male will equal 1 if the athlete is male and 0 if the athlete is female.  The omitted categories for this model are female, Winter, timed events, and bronze medal.  This model is estimated using multiple linear regression with robust standard errors. Because all of the independent variables are binary, this regression model tests for differences in means between the explanatory variables, holding the other included variables constant. 

The first column in Table 6 presents the results for the general model. These results suggest that, on average, males are older than females by 262 days, while Summer medalists are an average of 230 days younger than Winter medalists.  Judged medalists are on average younger than timed medalists by 1090 days, skill medalists are older than timed medalists by 1002 days, endurance medalists are older than timed medalists by 848 days, and combat medalists are younger than timed medalists by 245 days. Gold medalists are an average of 151 days younger than bronze medalists and silver medalists are not statistically different in age than bronze medalists.

The results found in the initial model generally hold for models that estimate male and females separately. The statistical significance for event type for the model with only males is similar to the general model, but the magnitudes differ.  For example, skill medalists are an average of 1,369 days older than timed medalists for the male-only model, while the difference was 1002 days for the full model. The other difference is that gold and silver medalists are not statistically different in age than bronze medalists.  In the female-only model, athletes who medal in judged events are an average of 1,374 days younger than those who medal in timed events, while in the full model the difference was 1090 days.  Female skill medalists are an average of 560 days older than female timed medalists while endurance medalists are 891 days older than timed medalists.  Strength and combat medalists are not statistically different than timed medalists in age.  For females, gold medalists are an average of 225 days younger than bronze medalists. 

Summer and Winter Games models estimated separately follow a similar pattern to the general model in the first column.  In both the Summer and Winter Games, males are statistically older than females, judged medalists are statistically younger than timed medalists, and endurance athletes are statistically older than timed athletes.  In the Summer Games, skill medalists are statistically older than timed medalists and combat medalists are statistically younger than timed medalists.  Summer athletes who win a gold medal are an average of 158 days younger than those athletes who win bronze medals.  Together, these results suggest that the results are generally consistent across males and females as well as Summer and Winter Games.    

Discussion

Our findings affirm the presence of the RAE among Olympic medalists in terms of both birth quarter and competition age.  A Pearson 𝜒2 test for a difference between birth quarter and medals found a statistically significant relationship between the two variables.  We also found that athletes born in Q2 are more likely to win a gold medal relative to those born in Q4.  This echoes patterns identified in youth and elite-level sports by previous researchers (Joyner et. al., 2017; Musch and Grondin, 2001).  These results suggest that the developmental advantages conferred by earlier birth within a competitive cohort persist even at the highest levels of sport. 

The variation in age across event types aligns with existing literature suggesting that events with aesthetic or acrobatic elements, like gymnastics or figure skating, tend to feature younger athletes (Zetaruk, (18) and Cummins (6)), while events requiring cumulative physical or technical development, such as endurance or skill-based events are dominated by older competitors (Longo et. al (10)).  This supports evidence of distinct developmental trajectories across Olympic disciplines.  These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how structural factors such as age-grouping policies and youth sport calendars may contribute to influence athlete development long after initial talent identification.  This finding may support a revision of the youth categorization system and selectors to mitigate the effects of RAE.

We can interpret these patterns using the Developmental Systems Model (Wattie et al., 2015), which posits that RAE arises from interacting individual (e.g., birthdate, maturation), task (e.g. sport type), and environmental (e.g. selection policies) constraints.  Our findings reflect all three of these inputs. From the individual perspective, older athletes may possess more maturity and resilience.  From the task perspective, certain disciplines favor youth, such as gymnastics and figure skating, while other disciplines favor experience, such as equestrian and long-distance running.  From the environmental perspective, qualification systems often reinforce early selection biases that persist all the way up to the Olympic Games.   

This study has several limitations.  Our data only includes athletes who received medals at the Olympic Games, allowing us to examine RAE for those who have achieved the highest pinnacle of their sport.  The broader population of Olympic participants may not exhibit the same patterns as medalists.  Another caveat is that team events and relays were omitted, despite the possibility that such formats may dilute or amplify RAE effects due to different selection or substitution dynamics.  Finally, the analysis does not account for cross-national or cultural variation in athlete development systems, which could meaningfully shape RAE patterns.  Future research should address these gaps by examining a more comprehensive athlete pool, including non-medalists, and incorporating institutional and cultural context.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides evidence that the RAE persists among Olympic medalists in the Summer and Winter Games held between 2000 and 2018.  Medalists in judged and combat events tend to be younger, while those in skill and endurance events tend to be older, confirming widely held beliefs about athlete development pathways.  Additionally, athletes born in the second quarter of the year are statistically more likely to win a gold medal than those born later in the year, reinforcing the influence of birth timing, even at the elite level.

Our results demonstrate that the effects of age-based selection advantages are not confined to youth or amateur competition but may have enduring implications for performance outcomes at the pinnacle of sport.  These insights underscore the importance of re-evaluating current age-grouping structures in sport development systems.  Policymakers, coaches, and sporting organizations should consider how age-based selection mechanisms might inadvertently limit long-term talent development by favoring relatively older athletes.  By acknowledging and addressing these structural biases, it may be possible to create more equitable opportunities for younger athletes within a given cohort, ultimately enhancing both inclusivity and performance sustainability. 

APPLICATIONS IN SPORT

To mitigate the impact of RAE, sporting bodies and youth development programs should consider pilot programs that rotate cutoff dates or cluster athletes by biological age rather than birthdate alone (see Wattie et al. (15) and Cobley et al. (4)).  Musch and Grondin (11) suggest varying cutoff dates for different sports, allowing youth participants to choose the sport with the most favorable cutoff date for them.  Raschner et al. (13) suggest a limit on the number of participants by each birth year across two-year age groups. Future research could explore how the dynamics of RAE evolve over an athlete’s career trajectory and examine whether similar effects are observable in non-medalists or team events.    

REFERENCES 

  1. Awosoga, D., & Chow, M. (2024). Peaks and primes: Do athletes get one shot at glory? Significance, 21(3), 6–9.
  2. Baker, J., Janning, C., Wong, H., Cobley, S., & Schorer, J. (2014). Variations in relative age effects in individual sports: Skiing, figure skating and gymnastics. European Journal of Sports Science, 14, 183–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2012.671369
  3. Barnsley, R. H., & Thompson, A. H. (1988). Birthdate and success in minor hockey: The key to the NHL. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 20(2), 167–176. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079927
  4. Cobley, S., Baker, J., Wattie, N., & McKenna, J. (2009). Annual age-grouping and athlete development: A meta-analytical review of relative age effects in sport. Sports Medicine, 39(3), 235–256. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200939030-00005
  5. Costa, A. M., Marques, M. C., Louro, H., Ferreira, S. S., & Marinho, D. A. (2013). The relative age effect among elite youth competitive swimmers. European Journal of Sports Science, 13(5), 437–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2012.742571
  6. Cummins, L. F. (2007). Figure skating: A different kind of youth sport. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 1(4), 390–401. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.1.4.390
  7. Glamser, F. D., & Vincent, J. (2004). The relative age effect among elite American youth soccer players. Journal of Sport Behavior, 27(1), 146–151.
  8. Hilmer, C. E., & Hilmer, M. J. (2020). Does confirmation bias exist in judged events at the Olympic Games? Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 17(1), 1–10. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jqas-2019-0043/html
  9. Joyner, P. W., Lewis, J. S., Dawood, R. S., Mallon, W. J., Kirkendall, D. T., & Garrett, W. E. Jr. (2017). Relative age effect: Beyond the youth phenomenon. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 14(4), 429–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827617743423
  10. Longo, A. F., Siffredi, C. R., Cardy, M. L., Aquilino, G. D., & Lentini, N. A. (2016). Age of peak performance in Olympic sports. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 11(1), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.14198/jhse.2016.111.03
  11. Musch, J., & Grondin, S. (2001). Unequal competition as an impediment to personal development: A review of the relative age effect in sport. Developmental Review, 21(2), 147–167. https://doi.org/10.1006/drev.2000.0516
  12. Patiño, B. A. B., Varon-Murcia, J. J., Cardenas-Contreras, S., Castro-Malaver, M. A., & Martinez, J. (2024). Scientific production on the relative age effect in sport: Bibliometric analysis of the last 9 years (2015–2023). Retos, 52, 623–638.
  13. Raschner, C., Muller, L., & Hildebrandt, C. (2012). The role of a relative age effect in the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 46(14), 1038–1043. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091535
  14. Thompson, A. H., Barnsley, R. H., & Stebelsky, G. (1991). Born to play ball: The relative age effect and Major League Baseball. Sociology of Sport Journal, 8(2), 146–151. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.8.2.146
  15. Wattie, N., Schorer, J., & Baker, J. (2015). The relative age effect in sport: A developmental systems model. Sports Medicine, 45(1), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0248-9
  16. Weglarczyk, S. (2018). Kernel density estimation and its application. ITM Web of Conferences, 23, 00037. https://doi.org/10.1051/itmconf/20182300037
  17. Werneck, F. Z., Coelho, E. F., de Oliveira, H. Z., Ribeiro Jr., D. B., Almas, S., de Lima, J. R. P., Matta, M., & Figueiredo, A. J. (2016). Relative age effect in Olympic basketball athletes. Science and Sports, 31(3), 158–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2015.08.004
  18. Zetaruk, M. N. (2000). The young gymnast. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 19(4), 757–780. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-5919(05)70236-2
2025-08-26T10:08:11-05:00December 23rd, 2025|General, Olympics, Research, Sports Health & Fitness, Sports Studies, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Relative Age Effect Among Olympic Medalists: Evidence from Ten Summer and Winter Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2018 
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Navigating Anxiety and Aspiration: Mental Health and Intrinsic Motivation Among Black Former Student-Athletes at a Division I HBCU

Authors: Michael M. Bivins EdD

Mark Mitchell, DBA

Founder and President of Pride and Strive Inc., Mount Laurel, NJ, USA.

Editor’s Note: The address information for the Corresponding Author has been updated.


Corresponding Author:

Michael M. Bivins, EdD, MS,

One Academy Drive

Daphne, AL 36526

[email protected]

646-330-2157

Michael M. Bivins, EdD, is the founder and educator for Pride and Strive Inc. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the United States Sports University. His research interests include various health-related issues, including nutrition and the mental health of student-athletes.

Navigating Anxiety and Aspiration: Mental Health and Intrinsic Motivation Among Black Former Student-Athletes at a Division I HBCU

ABSTRACT

Purpose: An individual’s mental health can influence their decision-making and thought processes. For National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) student-athletes, their mental health can impact their academic success. This study examined how mental health and intrinsic motivation influenced the academic success of seven Black former student-athletes at an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). The mental health of student-athletes can play a significant role in their intrinsic motivation. Methods: Using qualitative analysis, the researcher interviewed former student-athletes who participated in semi-structured interviews analyzed using NVivo 12 of their experiences as a Black male and female student-athletes at an HBCU. The study consisted of seven Black student-athletes who played football or basketball for at least one year at an HBCU. The HBCU chosen represented NCAA Division Ⅰ in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). The researcher meticulously organized the qualitative study using the software NVivo 12, ensuring a comprehensive and reliable research process. Results: The data collected were rigorously analyzed to identify themes that emerged from the interviews. The data revealed four themes: 1) Anxiety, 2) Self-Motivation, 3) Social Life, and 4) Support from coaches and administration. Conclusions: The seven former student-athletes identified different factors contributing to their mental health and motivation for academic success. The overall environment at the HBCU, family support, and interactions with non-student athletes, coaches, faculty, and staff played a significant role in their psychological well-being and success. The researcher proposed recommendations for future research to explore the mental health issues of student-athletes at other institutions.

INTRODUCTION

Many student-athletes nationwide compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Their goal is to get an education while competing in their respective sport. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (n.d.), the NCAA is divided into Divisions Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ. NCAA Division Ⅰ has more than 300 colleges/universities and over 6,000 teams, with opportunities for over 170,000 student-athletes. 

Black student-athletes comprise most football and basketball players competing within NCAA Division Ⅰ. Ingraham (2020) noted that Black student-athletes make up sixty percent of basketball and football rosters while only representing eleven percent of the other sports rosters. Many studies examined Black student-athlete perspectives of competing within the NCAA Division Ⅰ athletics over the years. Numerous studies highlighted how Black student-athletes felt exploited by their colleges/universities. The exploitation of college athletes has been a topic of discussion for many years (Van Rheenen & Atwood, 2014). As exploitation can take different forms, the common theme for many student-athletes included athletic and economic factors. There is also a lack of educational emphasis from their college/university (Logan et al., 2017).

The college experience and motivation to succeed will vary from person to person, and everyone will have the goals they want to achieve. Many student-athletes must endure different obstacles that can strain their mental health. Some mental health problems include depression, anxiety, and dealing with different traumas. For black student-athletes, a supportive college environment can be essential to their athletic and academic success.

Over the past few years, mental health has been an essential topic of discussion among many people. Student-athletes are uniquely juggling their education and competing in their sport. Many student-athletes compete in the NCAA to get an excellent education at their respective institutions. The word student-athlete reminds everyone that students in the NCAA are at their college mainly for educational purposes. Student-athlete is a term that lawyers of the NCAA created in 1955 to avoid the notion that the players were employees (Posner & Schneider, 2021). This study examined the mental health and intrinsic motivation of seven black former student-athletes who competed in an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) football and basketball program. The study examined the student-athletes intrinsic motivation and their influence by mental health factors, which included anxiety, stress, and social pressures.

Students have different levels of intrinsic motivation when dealing with the obstacles and challenges they may face during their transition into college (Daniels & Araposatathis, 2005). The mental health of student-athletes can play a significant role in their intrinsic motivation. This study looked at former student-athletes who provided an in-depth analysis of their experiences as Black male and female student-athletes at an HBCU. As many HBCUs compete within the NCAA Division Ⅰ athletics, it is common for top African American student-athletes to ultimately choose to attend larger PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions) (Hill, 2019). To date, very limited research has examined the mental health of Black former student-athletes who competed at an NCAA Division Ⅰ HBCU. As there are a small number of HBCU Division Ⅰ football and basketball programs, this study provided a research gap into the perspective of a small population compared to Black former student-athletes who competed at a PWI.

The Environment of Black Student-Athletes

According to Beamon (2014), African American student-athletes at PWIs face difficulties that include social and academic integration and various forms of racism.

One of the biggest stereotypes cited in the study was the perception that African American students at PWIs are only there for their athletic ability and not academics. The stereotype was toward both African American student-athletes and non-athlete African American college students. Tran et al. (2021) stated that student-athlete status might be an advantage for White student-athletes but a disadvantage for Black student-athletes when considering their peers’ perception of their academic success and intelligence.

In a study, Beamon (2014) noted that many African American student-athletes experienced racism beyond the classroom. Respondents revealed that sports did not necessarily bring different races and cultures together. Many respondents have felt a racial divide in the locker room. Experiencing racism can contribute to the mental health burden of Black individuals in the United States (Volpe et al., 2020). Cooper and Newton (2021) Mentioned that discriminatory incidents are not isolated to athletics but shared through academic and social spaces. Moreover, Museus et al. (2018) stated that college students are more contented and have a better sense of belonging when around people from the same cultural background.

Self -Determination Theory and Intrinsic Motivation

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a theory that explores human motivation and personality, where an individual can achieve self-determination through various factors (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The theory investigates an individual’s growth tendencies and inner psychological needs, which are the foundation of self-motivation. Within SDT, three essentials influence individual satisfaction. They include competence, relatedness, and autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2000). However, it is essential to note that environmental factors can sometimes act as barriers, hindering self-motivation, social functioning, and overall personal well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Motivation consists of energy, direction, and persistence, which all contribute to the activation of an intention (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Furthermore, motivation has a high value due to the results that occur from it (Ryan & Deci, 2000). People are motivated by different factors with varied experiences and consequences (Ryan & Deci, 2000). There are different types of motivation that one may experience. Intrinsic motivation is an inherent form of motivation that leads to personal satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Legault (2016) described intrinsic motivation as the engagement in activities or behaviors that are intrinsically satisfying. Intrinsic motivation is the highest level of self-determination (Holopainen et al., 2021). Intrinsic motivation is a natural inclination toward assimilation, mastery, and interest important to cognitive and social development (Ryan & Deci, 2000). People can be motivated by the value of an activity (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Another form of motivation Ryan and Deci (2000) noted is extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is the performance of an activity to achieve a separable outcome (Ryan & Deci, 2000). 

The Mental Health of the Black Student-Athlete

According to the NCAA, a recent study showed that mental health issues are still a significant concern among all NCAA student-athletes (Johnson, 2022). As Black students transition from high school into college, the accumulation of stress associated with the transition becomes a concern (Brittian et al., 2009). All student-athletes, generally, have been viewed as at risk for anxiety, depression, substance use, eating disorders, and performance-related stress (Kilcullen et al., 2022). African Americans tend to suffer from diseases related to mental illnesses, such as stress and anxiety, disproportionately (Reid & Smalls, 2004). According to Armstrong et al. (2015), only 20% of college students with mental health issues seek help from the provided services.  Student-athletes underutilize their health and counseling services more than non-student-athletes (Armstrong et al., 2015). The opposing views on seeking mental health help are prevalent in African American communities (Alvidrez et al., 2008).

Armstrong et al. (2015) also stated that the stigma of seeing a counselor is a weakness within the athletic subculture. The NCAA has recognized that their student-athletes mental health should become more emphasized (Henry, 2022). The NCAA has also acknowledged coaches’ role in helping student-athletes get the support and treatment they may need (Nocera, 2016).  There is a high probability that student-athletes on every college campus have some form of mental health issue, and Noncognitive characteristics of student-athletes have influenced academic performance (Comeaux & Harrison, 2011). 

Lindberg (2021) alluded to a crisis in the NCAA where there continues to be a significant percentage of student-athletes who ask for help managing stress and anxiety.  Furthermore, a survey conducted in 2015 found that 30% of student-athletes reported feeling overwhelmed (Lindberg, 2021). Coaches and parents of student-athletes usually emphasize performance over personal growth and character (Lindberg, 2021). 

Sense of belonging

Penner et al. (2021) noted that a sense of belonging, and a positive environment are essential to a student’s mental health and potential for academic achievement. In a study, Penner et al. (2021) stated that having a friendly and supportive faculty/staff contributed to a sense of belonging. A warm and friendly environment from other students on campus will also contribute to a sense of belonging. According to O’Keeffe (2013), a sense of belonging is also a contributing factor when considering the retention rates of all students. O’Keeffe (2013) noted that the institution must create an environment where students feel welcomed and accepted. The Need to Belong Theory states that belonging should be essential in all humans and cultures (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Baumeister and Leary (1995) maintained that belongingness should entail an individual having a certain minimum quantity and quality of social contacts and interactions.  

According to Baumeister and Leary (1995), belongingness has two main features. The first feature is frequent contact and interactions with others. The second and equally important feature of belongingness is the feeling that a bond or relationship becomes marked by stability, emphasizing the importance of long-term connections in the Need to Belong theory. 

METHODS

Subjects and Instrumentation

For the study, the participants were Black male and female, former student-athletes who played football or basketball for at least one year at an HBCU. The HBCU selected represented NCAA Division Ⅰ in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). For research, a selection of seven participants represented students from different graduating years. The graduating years for the student-athletes ranged based on the year the participants entered college. The graduating years were essential to the study because they gave the researcher an idea of how the student-athletes viewed their HBCU over the years regarding their mental health and intrinsic motivation.

The instrument used was an interview guide. Conducting in-depth interviews was essential for this study because it helped understand the student-athlete’s experiences. 

The study employed semi-structured interviews, a method in which the researcher asked the participants questions related to two broad topics. The researcher chose the approach to foster a more natural and open conversation, respecting the individuality of each participant and enabling the researcher to understand the student-athlete’s experiences better.

  • RQ1: What influence did faculty and staff at the HBCU have on Black male and female student-athletes when examining their mental health and intrinsic motivation to succeed academically?
  • RQ2: How has the overall environment at the HBCU helped the student manage their mental health and intrinsic motivation for academic success?

Table 1 indicates a summary of demographic information of the participants.

Table 1:

 Demographic of Participants

CharacteristicNumber
Gender 
Female2
Male5
Sport 
Men’s Basketball2
Women’s Basketball2
Football3
Graduated 
Men’s Basketball1
Women’s Basketball2
Football3

Table 2 represents the sport and year the participants left the institution.

Table 2:

Year Student Left Institution

YearSport
2009Football
2010Football
2013Football
2016Men’s Basketball
2019Women’s Basketball
2020Women’s Basketball
2021Men’s Basketball

Table 3 represents the age of the participants at the time of the interview.

Table 3:

Age of Participants (at the time of interviews)

ParticipantAge
Football Athlete 135
Football Athlete 235
Football Athlete 331
Male Basketball Player One31
Female Basketball Player One25
Female Basketball Player Two24
Male Basketball Player Two23

Validity and Reliability

The researcher ensured the trustworthiness of the data collected and used peer debriefings from an expert in the mental health field and another experienced qualitative researcher to validate interpretations, increase objectivity, and minimize researcher bias. Peer debriefing helped in the formation of unbiased questions during the interviews. Furthermore, the researcher used reflexibility and approached the interviews with an open mind. Although not a former student-athlete, the researcher attended two HBCUs. The researcher needed to put any personal experiences of past interactions with HBCU student-athletes aside to ensure transparency and trustworthiness of the data collected.

NVivo 12 was chosen for qualitative research because it helped the researcher identify patterns in the participants’ responses. Further, NVivo helped the researcher identify any connections or relationships in the participants’ overall experiences. The themes that were developed were analyzed based on the patterns revealed by analyzing the software.

Procedures and Data Analysis

The researcher employed purposive sampling to select participants for the study. The selection of participants involved carefully judging who best fit the study’s criteria. Specifically, the researcher contacted eight (8) Black former student-athletes who had previously played football and basketball at the selected HBCU. Seven of the participants responded and agreed to take part in the research. 

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the study of the participation of former student-athletes. Before the interviews, the researcher sent the participants an informed consent document to be signed and returned. The researcher also sent the participants a demographic questionnaire to be answered and returned. The researcher constructed a total of 14 open-ended questions for the interviews. The researcher asked follow-up questions that allowed the participants to elaborate honestly. With permission from participants, the researcher video-recorded the interviews and used Zoom recording software. The former student-athletes provided consent for recording. The average interview length was 20 minutes. 

Data were analyzed to identify themes that emerged from the interviews. During the interviews, the researcher took additional notes for reference. The interviewer transcribed the data using transcription software. NVivo 12 was used to organize and analyze the data. To ensure the accuracy of the data, the author checked all transcripts and video-recorded interviews. When analyzing, the researcher identified codes. The codes were then further analyzed to identify themes within the data.

RESULTS

After the researcher conducted and analyzed the interviews, five themes emerged.  The themes included the following:

  1. Anxiety (Research Questions One)
  2. Self-Motivation (Research Questions Two)
  3. Social Life (Research Question Two)
  4. Support from coaches and administration (Research Question One)

Table 4 indicates the themes that emerged and representative quotes of the participants interviewed.

Table 4:

Themes and Representative Quotes

Theme OverviewRepresentative Quotes
Theme 1: Anxiety
Codes for anxiety included: overwhelmed, balancing school and athletics, mental health services, and religion.“I actually had to go to the wide receiver coach and tell him that I had to remove myself from off of the team because I felt my grades were [suffering].”
“So, when you are a student athlete at the division one level, you are waking up at four o’clock in the morning working out. Then, you have to get study hall hours.”
“Having better [mental health] services was probably the biggest thing that I would change about my experience.”
“Pray. [I] Definitely pray.”
Theme 2: Self-Motivation
Codes for self-motivation included: Intrinsic motivation, and family support.“I’ve just learned to be mentally tough. And that was definitely instilled in me from a young age.”
“Oh yeah. So that was the easiest part for me. My family. I was just trying to be the first in my family to graduate college, which I have done.”
Theme 3: Social Life
Codes for social life included: non-student-athletes, HBCU culture, and other student-athletes.“Being around other people [non-student-athletes] … It’s real fun.”
“Everything was so positive … Everybody.
“I did hang out with the [other] athletes of course.”
Theme 4: Support from coaches and faculty members
Codes for the support from coaches and faculty members included: Scheduling, academic advisors, coaches, and support from professors.“No [scheduling conflict]. My own advisors pretty much set everything up for me.”
“There would be times when I would turn to one of the academic advisors, who was there [for support].
“I was fortunate enough to have a coach who … cared about what you were doing off the field.”
“I did rely on my assistant coach … She was amazing … I had really bad anxiety during that time.”

Theme and Codes

Note. The figure represents the four codes that relate to the theme.

All participants in the study mentioned experiencing some form of anxiety throughout their collegiate careers. Two of the seven participants used their religion, where they relied on prayers to get through some of their challenges. With the anxiety that the student-athletes experienced, the participants felt overwhelmed. All Participants mentioned it was often challenging to balance school and athletics. Female basketball player one was overwhelmed by the demands of her sport and not getting what she felt was the HBCU experience she always wanted. The theme of anxiety connects to research question one. It appeared that the administration, coaches, and faculty did not have a significant influence on the participants to seek mental health assistance, as five of the seven participants were not aware of mental health services offered.

Theme and Codes

Note. The figure represents the two codes that relate to the theme

The theme of self-motivation was associated with research question two. The overall environment did not hinder the participant’s goals for academic success, as six of the seven participants expressed the need to take advantage of their opportunity to get a college degree while doing what they loved in their sport. Football athlete three mentioned that his self-motivation came from different areas in his life. One thing that motivated him was feeling like he did not do well academically in high school. He wanted to prove that he could do better academically at the collegiate level. Four of the seven participants mentioned their families and used them as intrinsic motivation to succeed academically. Football athlete two and Football athlete three mentioned that they got their intrinsic motivation to succeed academically from seeing people within their family graduate with their college degrees. They wanted to continue with the success they already saw in their families. 

Theme and Codes

Note. The figure represents the three codes that relate to the theme

As there was a high demand for the participants to manage athletics and academics, most participants mentioned that having a social life was essential. Research question two was associated with the theme of social life. There were positive interactions with others on campus. Six of the seven participants in the study mentioned that they had friends who were non-student-athletes.  Male basketball player one and male basketball player two mentioned that they appreciated many non-student-athletes during college.

Female basketball player two mentioned that she had good relationships with other students in her major department as she believed that healthy relationships with others were important.  Football athlete three and male basketball player one also mentioned they had good relationships with student-athletes and non-student-athletes.

Theme and Codes

Note. The figure represents the four codes that relate to the theme

Support from coaches and faculty members was one of the most compelling themes related to research question one. Six of the seven participants appreciated the support they received from their coaches and faculty members. All participants mentioned that support was necessary for their mental health and overall success. The support came in different forms that included scheduling, mentorship, and mental well-being.

DISCUSSION

Research Question One: What influence did faculty and staff at the HBCU have on Black male and female student-athletes when examining their mental health and intrinsic motivation to succeed academically?

The study’s findings revealed that faculty and staff had an impact on their student-athletes. Consistent with prior research by Penner et al. (2021), the friendly and supportive faculty/staff contributed to a sense of belonging. There was tremendous encouragement from the participant’s coaches and professors to excel in their education. In addition to the support from coaches and professors, two participants also mentioned that academic advisors played a tremendous role in their academic development. The study was consistent with the self-determination theory. As Ryan and Deci (2000) cited, competence, relatedness/connectedness, and autonomy are three conditions of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) that influence intrinsic motivation. The support of faculty and coaches indicated autonomy and competence. Autonomous supportive teachers enhance their students’ intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

All participants in the study mentioned that they experienced some form of anxiety and felt overwhelmed as a student-athlete. As the mental health of student-athletes is important, it is also vital to examine how they deal with their mental health issues. College faculty and administration should continue to take note of their role in minimizing the psychological distress of their students. Consistent with prior research conducted by Johnson (2022), mental health issues were a significant concern among the student-athletes.

It is important to note that two of the seven participants were female. There was a notable difference in the gender dynamics regarding mental health issues. In contrast to the male participants, the female participants heavily relied on their coaches for emotional support when they felt they missed their families. In addition, female basketball player one was the only participant who utilized the mental health services offered. The study revealed that the female participants were slightly more mindful of their psychological well-being.

At HBCUs, the significant presence of Black coaches and faculty members, in contrast to PWIs, has a profound cultural influence on their students. As Klopfenstein (2005) noted, culturally similar teachers can positively influence students of the same culture. The warmer relationship between coaches and their student-athletes at HBCUs, as reported by Murty et al. (2014), further underscores this cultural influence. Many participants expressed their gratitude for the support their coaches provided. 

Collectively, the student-athlete’s narratives support faculty and staff’s critical role in their academic development. Five of the seven participants heavily relied on their coach’s support and mentioned that their coaches played a significant role in their academic development. Academic advisors also played a critical role and helped the student-athletes get through challenging tasks. The positive feedback and interactions from coaches, faculty, academic advisors, and family members helped the former student-athletes achieve autonomy and competence. The participants believed they were in an environment that fostered their ability to achieve their academic and athletic goals. According to the SDT, a competent individual would feel like they can master a task and have the confidence to succeed and grow (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Ryan and Deci (2020) stated that there is a link between intrinsic motivation and the fulfillment of the needs for autonomy and competence. This study highlights the influence of staff and faculty at the HBCU in encouraging the student-athlete’s intrinsic motivation to succeed academically.

Research Question Two: How has the overall environment at the HBCU helped the student manage their mental health and intrinsic motivation for academic success?

The participants benefited from the social life outside of athletics, and there was interaction and support from non-student-athletes on campus. Most participants appreciated the HBCU culture; they felt it was an overall supportive environment. The study revealed consistent findings with prior research conducted by Museus et al. (2018), which found that college students are more contented and have a better sense of belonging when around people from the same cultural background.

The study revealed that positive interactions with teammates and other student-athletes from different sports on campus were critical for success. In the SDT, people have a high sense of relatedness when they experience connections with other people, enhancing their sense of belonging (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Communication and support of other student-athletes were effortless due to the commonalities that they shared. In addition to the positive interactions with other student-athletes, participants also felt connected with non-student-athletes.

The study indicated that student-athletes who have connections and gain support from non-student-athletes can have a positive impact. The positive interaction with non-student-athletes on campus also enhanced a sense of belonging. The sense of belonging enhanced the participant’s intrinsic motivation because the interactions with others did not add stress, anxiety, or other mental health issues. A high sense of belonging can increase a student’s motivation, academic engagement, and confidence (Kelly et al., 2024).

The participants demonstrated high self-motivation, as six of the seven participants had high levels of intrinsic motivation to succeed in academics, leading to their college degrees. The participants wanted a promising career after college. The theme of self-motivation emphasized the role of outside influences, such as family and friends, on student-athletes. The interviews did not reveal that the participants had a high athletic identity. When student-athletes perceive themselves as having high levels of athletic identity, there is a negative correlation between their academic motivation and grade point averages (GPA) (Bimper, 2014).

None of the participants mentioned that they experienced any form of racism on campus. Previous studies cited that Black student-athletes experience racism at PWIs.  Beamon (2014) stated that Black student-athletes felt negatively stereotyped at their PWI. Tran et al. (2021) stated that the perception of a student-athlete at PWIs is positive for White student-athletes and negative, with a disadvantage for Black student-athletes when considering their peers’ perception of their academic success and intelligence. The study participants did not feel negatively stereotyped as being academically inferior.

This study highlights HBCUs’ relevancy and cultural role to Black students, whether student-athletes or non-student-athletes. Shuler et al. (2022) noted that many Black students believe that HBCUs are culturally relevant and safe environments that are free from any racial hostility they perceive at PWIs. Furthermore, students who attend HBCUs are more likely to graduate and achieve advanced degrees (Shuler et al., 2022). As noted in the study, there is a heavy emphasis on academic achievement from coaches, faculty, and administration.

CONCLUSIONS

This study examined the mental health and intrinsic motivation of Black former student-athletes at one selected HBCU. The former student-athletes represented NCAA Division Ⅰ. Results indicated that family support and positive interactions with others on campus, including non-student-athletes, faculty, and coaches, can positively impact a student-athlete’s mental health. The research conducted highlighted the relevancy of the self-determination theory. When examining an individual’s potential for academic success, there is an emphasis on components of the theory (relatedness, autonomy, and competence) throughout the study. The NCAA must continue to encourage their institutions to accentuate the importance of managing the mental health of their student-athletes. Implementing policies that underline the importance of mental health services and resources can improve well-being. A limitation of this study is the selection of one HBCU. As the college experience can vary from person to person, researchers can expand this study to former NCAA Division Ⅰ student-athletes who attended other HBCUs. In addition, expanding to HBCU NCAA Division II and III would help get the perspective of student-athletes who compete at different levels. Another limitation was a focus on student-athletes who competed in football and basketball. Future research must consider student-athletes from various sports to build on this study’s findings. In addition, future research should explore the mental health and intrinsic motivation of Black former student-athletes who attended PWI compared to those who attended HBCUs. As there are different methodological approaches, a cross-sectional comparison with Black former student-athletes at PWIs and HBCUs would help understand the differences in the student’s environment, psychological health, and interactions with others.

APPLICATIONS IN SPORT

The NCAA can use this study to continue encouraging their student-athletes to use their schools’ mental health services. Additionally, this study can encourage the NCAA and other institutions to implement and update policies supporting mental health awareness. Administrators at HBCUs can use the information presented in this study to develop and implement policies geared toward their student-athletes. Moreover, this study can help faculty members and coaches better understand their role in helping student-athletes increase their psychological well-being and motivation to succeed academically.   

2025-08-11T08:11:47-05:00August 9th, 2025|General, Sports Health & Fitness, Sports Medicine, Sports Studies, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Navigating Anxiety and Aspiration: Mental Health and Intrinsic Motivation Among Black Former Student-Athletes at a Division I HBCU
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Correlation Between Post-Injury Mental Health Symptoms and Rehabilitation Adherence in Collegiate Athletes

Luis Torres1, Fredrick A. Gardin2, Shala E, Davis3 and Colleen A. Shotwell4

1Department of Kinesiology, Montclair State University
2Department of Exercise Science, East Stroudsburg University

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Luis Torres, Department of Kinesiology, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043. Email: [email protected]. 

Correlation Between Post-Injury Mental Health Symptoms and Rehabilitation Adherence in Collegiate Athletes

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To explore the correlation between post-injury mental health symptoms and rehabilitation adherence in collegiate athletes to gain knowledge that would improve rehabilitative recommendations. Methods: 19 National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes (M age: 20.58 ± 1.31) were assessed for depressive and anxious symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) after injury. Once they were cleared for full sports participation, they were administered the HADS again and the Rehabilitation Adherence Questionnaire (RAQ) to measure their perceptions of adherence to their rehabilitation programs. Results: A significant correlation was found between the two administrations of the HADS  (R = .55, P = .03), but no significant correlations were found between RAQ scores and any of the HADS scores. Conclusions: Although the findings of this study did not establish a significant correlation between post-injury depression and anxiety symptoms and self-perceptions of rehabilitation adherence, strong evidence still exists to believe that poor mental health may be associated with poor rehabilitation adherence. Applications in Sport: Members of the collegiate athlete care team should be aware that the common underreporting of mental health symptoms in this population might make it difficult to establish the relationship between these symptoms and their recovery process after an injury. A holistic recovery approach should be considered in any injury recovery processes to allow collegiate athletes to heal both physically and psychologically.

Keywords: depression, anxiety, injury, recovery

Abbreviations: NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; RAQ, Rehabilitation Adherence Questionnaire

Introduction

Depression and anxiety remain as the leading mental health conditions among collegiate athletes, with as many as 30% and 50% of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes reporting depression and anxiety, respectively, in a 2011 survey from the National College Health Association (NCAA, 2024).  More recently, the American College of Sports Medicine (2024), in their 2021 statement on mental health challenges for athletes, found that the prevalence for depression and/or anxiety in this population ranges between 25% to 35% and only 10% of collegiate athletes with a known mental health condition seek help from a mental health professional. The reasons for this prevalence are multi-faceted given that collegiate athletes often maintain a strong athletic identity that is reluctant to ask for help and are faced with the societal perception of athletes always having to be immensely resilient during all hardships (Chang et al., 2020; Sarac et al., 2018; Tomalski et al., 2019; Wayment et al., 2017; Weigard et al., 2012; Wolanin et al., 2016). Collegiate athletes balance academic demands with their time-intensive and stress-inducing athletic demands while encountering issues relevant to sexuality, gender, hazing, bullying, sexual misconduct, body image, and sport transition (Greenleaf et al., 2009; Petrie et al., 2008; Putukian, 2016). The notion that athletes may be at a decreased risk for mental health conditions due to increased levels of exercise and other personality traits that can aid in athletic success has been shown to be a misconception (Chang et al., 2020).Furthermore, collegiate athletes are exposed to an abundance of additional unique risk factors for depression and anxiety when compared to non-athlete collegiate student counterparts (Demirel, 2016; Ghaedi et al., 2014; Hagiwara et al., 2017; Hanton et al., 2013; McGuire et al., 2017).

Unfortunately, sports injury is an often unavoidable element of collegiate athletics participation, with approximately 40% to 50% of collegiate athletes sustaining at least 1 injury requiring either medical attention or a participation restriction during their careers (Yang et al., 2014b).  Injuries such as ligamentous sprains, muscular strains, skeletal fractures, joint dislocations, and concussions are relatively common (Yang et al., 2014a). Sports injuries further aggrandize the preexisting symptoms of depression and anxiety present in collegiate athletes due to the fact that a sports injury may serve as potentially one of the most physically and emotionally disturbing events that a collegiate athlete may experience during their career.  Injured collegiate athletes experience enhanced risk factors of depression and anxiety such as fear of reinjury, trouble sleeping, poor concentration, emotional numbness, and injury conversation avoidance (Li et al., 2017; Padaki et al., 2018).  They utilize the coping mechanisms of unrealistic wishful thinking, unhealthy venting of emotions, denial, and behavior disengagement (Wadey et al., 2014). Additively, social stressors and financial stressors have also been shown to substantially grow post-injury in collegiate athletes (Evans et al., 2012).  Despite these complications, however, collegiate athletes are often still expected to adhere to sports rehabilitation exercise programs for a full recovery and timely return-to-sport.

Sports rehabilitation exercise programs are only effective for collegiate athletes when they are closely adhering to the instructions provided to them by their rehabilitative healthcare provider (Torres et al., 2023a).  Poor rehabilitation adherence may prolong recovery, enhance reinjury risk, and reduce the likelihood of positive patient outcomes upon return-to-sport (Jack et al., 2010). The salient post-injury symptoms of depression and anxiety play a role in reducing rehabilitation adherence and hindering injury recovery in collegiate athletes (Baez et al., 2023; Torres et al., 2023b).  However, given that as many as 98.3% of injured collegiate athletes have been reported to either overadhere and underadhere to their rehabilitation programs, more contemporary evidence is needed to further understand this extent of this role (Granquist et al., 2014). Despite the recent progress in collegiate athlete mental health screening that has been made, rehabilitative healthcare providers of injured collegiate athletes may not yet be collectively appropriately aware of the symptoms of depression and anxiety in rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to explore the correlation between post-injury depression and anxiety and rehabilitation adherence in collegiate athletes in an effort to gain knowledge that would improve recommendations for sports rehabilitation programs.

Methods

Sampling

The sampling in this study was limited to two collegiate institutions of varying NCAA competition levels (NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III) within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Demographic information on age, sex, NCAA competition level, race/ethnicity, academic eligibility level, type of sport, and type of musculoskeletal injury was collected from all participants. Participants were recruited by their athletic trainers after a sports injury had occurred and were included based on being 18 years of age or older and sustaining an acute musculoskeletal sports injury that required the inability to engage in full sports participation for at least four weeks. The purpose of this four week requirement was to ensure that the injuries sustained were significant enough to require a rehabilitation program for at least a month (Shin et al., 2010). Collegiate athletes were excluded if they had a concussion, respiratory disease, metabolic disease, cardiac disease, autonomic nervous system disease, or chronic injury of an unknown origin.

Instrumentation

Zigmond and Snaith (1983)  designed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as a 14-item questionnaire to measure the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The HADS consists of two subscales that are constructed of seven items for symptoms of depression (HADS-D) and seven items for symptoms of anxiety (HADS-A). Each item contains responses that are individually scored on a scale from 0 to 3 with higher scores indicating a higher level of symptom frequency (i.e., not at all, sometimes, occasionally very often, nearly all the time, etc.). The combined score of emotional distress (sum of HADS-A and HADS-D) ranges from 0 to 42 with scores of 11 or higher indicating a potential for a clinically significant mood disorder case. The total score of each participant places them into one of the following categories: non-case/normal (0 – 7), borderline case/borderline abnormal (8-10), case/abnormal (11 – 21+). Correlations ranging from .76 to .41 for the seven anxiety items (P < .01) and from .60 to .30 for the seven depression items (P < .02) have been associated with this instrument (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983).  Similarly, calculated Spearman correlations between subscale scores and confirmed psychiatric ratings have shown that R = .70 for HADS-D and R = .74 for HADS-A (P < .001). The HADS has been routinely established as an instrument that performs well in assessing the symptom severity and caseness of depression and anxiety in both psychiatric and primary care patients and the general population (including collegiate athletes) (Bjelland et al., 2002).

RAQ

Fisher et al. (1988) designed the Rehabilitation Adherence Questionnaire (RAQ) as a 40-item questionnaire to measure rehabilitation adherence, while Shin et al. (2010) later redeveloped the RAQ into a 25-item questionnaire and validated it for injured athletes. The RAQ consists of six subscales: support from significant others (five items), pain tolerance (five items), scheduling (four items), self-motivation (five items), perceived exertion (three items), and environmental conditions (three items), and participants using the RAQ rate their level of agreement to each item using a four-point scale (i.e., 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree). The responses to each statement are then summed for a total adherence score that can range from 25 – 100. Higher total adherence scores indicate that participants perceive themselves successfully adhering to and completing their rehabilitation programs as prescribed by their rehabilitative healthcare provider. Moderate to high intra-class correlation coefficients for the each of the six subscales (support from significant others = .81, pain tolerance = .64, scheduling = .72, self-motivation = .78, perceived exertion = .67, and environmental conditions = .82; P < .01) have been found for this instrument, thus indicating a high level of test-retest reliability within the RAQ (Shin et al.).

Data Collection

A non-experimental repeated-measures prospective cohort study design was used in the completion of this study. Human subjects research approval was provided from the East Stroudsburg University Institutional Review Board (protocol #ESU-IRB-041-2021) in March of 2021, with the data collecting period for this study starting in June of 2021 and ending in February of 2022. After an in-season sports injury had occurred, collegiate athletes who met the appropriate inclusion criteria were approached by their athletic trainer for voluntary participation in this study through the provision of an electronic informed consent form on their first full day of starting their rehabilitation programs. The collegiate athletes were made aware that their involvement in this study would not have any effect on their status as a student-athlete at their respective institution. Once enrolled in the study, the participants were asked to complete the HADS to measure their current post-injury depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants were then monitored throughout the duration of their rehabilitation programs until they received clearance for full sports participation from either their team physician and/or athletic trainer (i.e., at return-to-play). On the day this clearance was attained, the HADS was administered again as well as the RAQ to measure their self-perceptions of their adherence to their rehabilitation programs. All questionnaires in this study were administered through Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant Google Forms on either a password-protected tablet, smartphone, or computer desktop with all collected data being deidentified, kept confidential, and storedin a password-encrypted computer.

Data Analysis

The IBM SPSS 27.0 Statistical Package was used to analyze all collected data once the data collection period was complete. Descriptive statistics were reported and Pearson product-moment correlation tests with a significance level of P < .05 were conducted among HADS and RAQ scores to attempt to further identify the relationships between post-injury depression and anxiety and rehabilitation adherence in collegiate athletes. The following criteria were used to interpret R values: little to no relationship (.00–.25), fair relationship (.25–.50), moderate to good relationship (.50–.75), and good to excellent relationship (above .75) (Portney & Watkins, 2009).

Results

The 19 participants (M age: 20.58 ± 1.31; 17 males, 2 females) in this study were primarily NCAA Division II student-athletes (73.7%), White Caucasian (63.2%), academic seniors (42.1%), and football athletes (63.2%). The participants sustained various musculoskeletal conditions such as foot/ankle injuries (36.8%), knee injuries (21.1%), hip/thigh injuries (21.1%), and shoulder injuries (21.1%) with three participants not being cleared for a return to full sports participation at the conclusion of the data collection period. The cleared participants (n= 16) took 96.63 ± 31.90 days to recover from their sustained injuries before they were cleared for full sports participation. For the completion of the post-injury HADS (i.e., HADS 1 administration), the participants (n = 19) scored an 11.58 ± 5.26, while for the completion of the return-to-play HADS (i.e., HADS 2 administration), the participants (n = 16) scored a 9.63 ± 5.83. The participants (n= 15) rated their self-perception of rehabilitation adherence to be 57.20 ± 4.95 on a scale of 25 to 100 using the RAQ. A significant positive correlation was found between HADS 1 and HADS 2 scores (R = .55, P = .03), but no significant correlations were found between RAQ and HADS 1 scores (R = .52, P = .85) or RAQ and HADS 2 scores (R = .14, P = .63).

Discussion

The mean scores of both HADS 1 and HADS 2 falling above the asymptomatic normal HADS category indicates that depressive and anxious symptoms remain a substantial presence for collegiate athletes at post-injury and return-to-play states. Furthermore, although the findings of this study did not establish a significant correlation between post-injury depression and anxiety symptoms and self-perceptions of rehabilitation adherence, there is still strong existing evidence from previous researchers to believe that poor mental health may be associated with poor rehabilitation adherence. Holt et al. (2019) organized a literature review of 34 studies on the topic of adherence to exercise therapy interventions in children and adolescents with musculoskeletal conditions among 6 different databases. The selected studies represented 1,563 participants (35% male, 65% female, 2-19 years old), 11 musculoskeletal conditions, and multiple exercise interventions. Commonly identified barriers to rehabilitation adherence in this review included time constraints, physical environment (location), and previous negative exercise experiences. Holt et al. concluded that a diversity of barriers and facilitators to exercise therapy for musculoskeletal conditions exist and current strategies to boost adherence are not consistent with contemporarily identified barriers and facilitators. They clinically referenced that making exercise enjoyable, social, and convenient may be important to maximizing rehabilitation adherence to exercise therapy in young, injured athletes.

Jack et al. (2010)  developed a systematic review of 22 articles reporting on 20 independent cohort studies using the ADMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PUBMED, PSYCINFO, SPORTDISCUS, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and PEDro databases to understand the barriers to treatment adherence in physiotherapy outpatient clinics. These researchers identified high quality studies that maintained a focus on the exploration of rehabilitation adherence in patients with musculoskeletal conditions. They found that there was strong evidence to indicate that poor treatment adherence was associated with low levels of physical activity at baseline or in previous weeks, low in-treatment adherence with exercise, low self-efficacy, depression, anxiety, helplessness, poor social support, greater number of perceived barriers to exercise, and increased pain levels during exercise. They also found that the research focused on the ability of health professionals and health organizations to address these barriers was comparatively limited. Holt et al. (2019)  and Jack et al. would agree that symptoms of depression and anxiety may negatively influence rehabilitation adherence and that future study on the barriers to rehabilitation adherence is essential to the development of useful interventions by sports medicine professionals and other healthcare providers.

Brewer et al. (2013)  studied the predictors of adherence to home rehabilitation exercises following ACL reconstruction in a study of 91 (58 males, 33 females) post-operative patients. These patients completed measures of athletic identity, neuroticism, optimism, and pessimism before ACL surgery and measures of daily pain, negative mood, stress, and home exercise completion for 42 days postoperatively. These researchers found that their participants reported high levels of adherence to the prescribed exercise regimen and that the participants completed fewer home exercises on days when they experience more stress or negative moods. They concluded that day-to-day variations in negative mood and stress may contribute to adherence to prescribed home exercises. This conclusion may be generalizable to athletic training settings in collegiate athletics, as past studies have supported the presence of poor rehabilitation adherence by student-athletes in these settings (Granquist et al, 2014; Fisher et al., 1988).

Evans et al. (2012)  researched the stressors experienced by injured athletes during the 3 phases of their recovery from sports injury (onset, rehabilitation, return to play) and the differences in the stressors experienced by team-sport athletes as compared to individual-sport athletes with the use of semi structured interviews. The sample in this study consisted of 5 previously injured high-level rugby players and five previously injured high-level golfers. These researchers found that the athletes in their study experienced sport, medical/physical, and social and financial stressors; they also found that these same athletes reported several differences in the stressors experienced across the 3 phases of injury recovery and between team and individual-sport athletes. These researchers stressed that their findings have important implications for the design and implementation of interventions aimed at managing the potentially stressful sport injury experience and facilitating the return of injured athletes to competitive sport. This research supports the notion that certain psychosocial components of sports injury affect the ability of collegiate athletes to return to sports participation without any limitations.

Wadey et al. (2014) explored the relationship between re-injury anxiety and return-to-play outcomes in a cross-sectional research study of 335 collegiate athletes (M age = 23.5 ± 6.6) from varying NCAA competition levels. The athletes in this study completed the RIA-RE subscale of the Reinjury Anxiety Inventory (RIAI) as an assessment of reinjury anxiety and the Return to Sport After Serious Injury Questionnaire (RSSIQ) as an assessment of the perceptions of athletes on returning to sport. These researchers also assessed the presence of coping strategies in these athletes with the use of the Crocker and Graham MCOPE measure. They found a positive relationship between re-injury anxiety and heightened return concerns (R = .62, P < .01) and significant indirect effects for coping were found for wishful thinking, venting of emotions, denial, and behavioral disengagement. They suggested that future researchers should continue to examine the relationship between anxiety and return-to-play outcomes using diverse methodologies. 

Conclusions

With the premise that poor mental health may be correlated to poor rehabilitation adherence, it is reasonable to suggest that rehabilitative healthcare providers should have an invested interest in utilizing effective psychosocial interventions within their programming when treating injured collegiate athletes. Additionally, they should re-evaluate their own mental health screening practices to ensure that they are screening for appropriate mental health symptoms at baseline, at post-injury, and at return-to-play, as this is now considered best practice (Baez & Jochimsen, 2023). Rehabilitative healthcare providers should also be keenly aware of the fact that underreporting and a proven reluctance to ask for help in this population may play a role in masking certain symptoms through the entire rehabilitative process. These same elements may have also played a role as to why a relationship was not established between post-injury depression and anxiety symptoms and self-perceptions of rehabilitation adherence in this study. Other study limitations, including a small, predominantly White and male sample, timing and scheduling issues in the athletic training facility, and a lack of standardization when it came to the rehabilitation programs prescribed by the athletic trainers, could also have impacted the results. Future researchers should seek to create similar studies with much larger, diverse sample sizes that explore correlations between the individual subscales of HADS-D and HADS-A and the self-perceptions of rehabilitation adherence of collegiate athletes.

Applications in Sport

Members of the collegiate athlete care team, such as coaches, athletic trainers, and other healthcare providers, should be aware that the common underreporting of mental health symptoms in this population might make it difficult to establish the relationship between these symptoms and their recovery process after an injury. A holistic recovery approach should be considered in any injury recovery processes to allow collegiate athletes to heal both physically and psychologically. Despite their inability to sometimes be vulnerable and transparent in reporting, collegiate athletes clearly struggle with their mental health and more research is needed to better understand how the more nuanced aspects of depressive, anxious, and disordered eating symptomatology affect them while they are recovering from a sports injury. The best collegiate athletic environments are those that permit collegiate athletes to report any and all mental health symptoms, concerns, and crises without any fear of consequences stemming from coaches and other relevant personnel.

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2025-05-23T11:29:04-05:00July 4th, 2025|General, Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Correlation Between Post-Injury Mental Health Symptoms and Rehabilitation Adherence in Collegiate Athletes
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In Their Own Voices: Factors Effecting Collegiate Hockey Player Use and Perception of Mental Skills

Author: Elia Burbidge

Author: 1 Elia Burbidge

Corresponding Authors

1Dr. Lindsay Ross-Steward

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

1 Hairpin Drive

Edwardsville, Il. 62026

2Dr. Stephanie Cameron

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

1 Hairpin Drive

Edwardsville, Il. 62026

Elia Burbidge is a Doctoral Student in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Springfield College. Springfield, MA.

ABSTRACT 

Mental skills use and perceptions of their effectiveness in collegiate level athletes have been studied extensively in sport psychology. The usage of mental skills has been deemed effective overall and in collegiate settings. That said, little research has investigated hockey players’ perceptions of mental performance. Due in part to the unique culture of hockey there is a need to study hockey players’ perceptions of, and influences on the use of, mental skills. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the perceptions and usage of mental skills in collegiate hockey players, along with perceptions of how hockey culture impacts these beliefs through interviews with current college hockey players. Semi-structured interviews of six collegiate hockey players took place. Findings from these interviews suggest that level of play, exposure, and hockey culture largely impact how participants use and perceive mental training. These findings also suggest that some collegiate hockey players may be using psychological strategies without having been deliberately taught these strategies. 

Key Words: psychological strategies, hockey culture, college athletics 

INTRODUCTION 

The effectiveness of mental training has consistently been shown in both research and applied settings (6, 10, 21, 23, 26, 33, 34).  A recent meta-analysis by Lochbaum et al. (26) indicated that using mental skills positively impacts performance, with mindfulness, task cohesion, and self-efficacy having the largest positive mean effect sizes.    

Despite evidence that mental skills training and mental health interventions increase performance, athletes often neglect the development of psychological skills (12, 19). Athletes are hesitant to work with a sport psychology professional in part due to common misperceptions related to masculine stigmas, lack of knowledge about sport psychology, and the tangibility of results (5, 10, 16, 19, 27, 40).  Findings indicate that hesitancy can stem from past experiences with sport psychology professionals (SPPs), demographics (gender, age), and participation in a masculine or more physical sport where injury is common, and where the social role of a male athlete is stigmatized (27, 16). This supports previously found conclusions that reflect a greater hesitancy from male athletes to seek help from an SPP than female athletes (27, 28). Furthermore, personal openness, playing a team versus individual sport, and preferences of a consultant based on the same or similar cultural background contribute to overall perceptions of working with an SPP and using mental skills (5, 14, 20, 27, 28, 39). Additionally, Fortin-Guichard et al. (14) found that athletes’ perceptions and understanding of sport psychology or SPPs are often confused with the role of a psychiatrist or therapist, with the perception of offered services rooted in clinical psychology.  

Research has also indicated that NCAA athletes are often likely to view the benefits of a psychological skills training (PST) program as negative and have low confidence in the process and its benefits (28). Furthermore, the perceptions of SPPs can be positively impacted based on the SPPs actions of involving coaching staff, serving as a player-coach liaison, and earning trust through social and environmental involvement (40). Lastly, research indicates that the coaching staff’s perceptions of using an SPP vary. Although becoming more positive (43), the staff’s perceptions of and willingness to use an SPP is also a factor influencing athlete’s perceptions and use of mental skills (5, 15, 37, 2010).   

MENTAL SKILLS USE IN HOCKEY  

Research focused on hockey players’ perception and use of mental skills originated from Anderson et al. (4), who implemented a PST program in a collegiate hockey team throughout two seasons to help improve body checking in games. Body checking is seen as a beneficial asset in being successful against a team’s opponent and can often be used to defend, gain possession of the puck, and even intimidate. To date, body checking is only allowed in men’s hockey after a certain age and is penalized in women’s hockey. The use of body checking was assessed pre and post goal setting, feedback, and active praise interventions. It was found that hitting rates increased more with feedback over goal setting and praise. Furthermore, a study of junior-level Finnish hockey players found that using different methods of goal setting (e.g., task, approach) was highly correlated with enjoyment and perceived sporting ability (22). Most recently, after implementation of a PST program with a collegiate hockey team, players showed significant increases in their ability to cope with adversity, goal setting, peaking under pressure, and freedom from worry. Overall, this intervention positively influenced the mindfulness, resiliency, and coping skills in the personal and athletic lives of collegiate hockey players (42). These results highlight the continued importance of psychological skills training for hockey players. Research on mental skills of hockey goalies as their own unique group has also been done. A recent review of mental training effectiveness in hockey found that the majority of mental skills training (MST) programs have a cognitive control focus, specifically using attention, thought, and emotional control exercises (29). Common mental techniques used by goalies have been identified by both Monnich (29) and Gelinas and Munroe-Chandler (17), including mindfulness, imagery, goal setting, focused breathing, and self-talk.   

UNDERSTANDING HOCKEY CULTURE   

To better understand mental skills perception and use in hockey players, it is critical to analyse the hyper-masculine culture of hockey. Hockey has been culturally accepted as a tough, physical, and aggressive sport played by predominately white, middle to upper-class, heterosexual males (1, 3, 7, 18). Interviews with former and current Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players found that players attributed much of the masculine ideologies that describe how hockey should be played (3). Players also discussed how locker room culture is an environment that heavily enforces and upholds masculine ideals. Finally, participants expressed concern about how the media plays a role in suppressing traits that are not deemed as masculine (e.g., finesse style of play, not fighting, being vulnerable) (3). Using current NHL player Sidney Crosby as an example, Allain (2) showed how the media often called him ‘wimpy’ and a ‘complainer’, or during substantial concussion-based injuries as ‘weak’ (2). In addition, Lefebvre et al. (24) specifically addressed the stigmas surrounding mental health in junior hockey players. The researchers described how athletes often avoid seeking mental health counselling for fear of being seen as weak or unable to compete, a finding more prominent in male athletes (14, 24).  

Research on hockey culture also focuses on the challenges female players face (1, 18). Interviews with female hockey players in Sweden indicated their perceived femininity is deemed “at risk”, as opposed to the male athletes who are perceived as going through hockey as a rite of passage into manhood (18). Furthermore, women in hockey are deemed to have a ‘masculine’ image (muscular, tough) but are also required to prove their worth in ability and strength to compete in the men’s game. The participants also expressed how they are often viewed as inferior and that it is very difficult to challenge these norms and ideologies (18).  

Adams and Leavitt (2018) interviewed the staff of varying Alberta youth hockey associations. Participants heavily discussed the lack of female representation across positions within the organizations and poor refereeing due to the misunderstanding of body checking or lack thereof in the women’s game (1). Overall concluding that there is often a romanticization of female athletes, and how their journeys are portrayed as positive, but are often dampened by discrimination, accessibility issues, suppressed opportunity, and gender ideologies (1).  

PURPOSE  

Based on past research, it seems hockey players can benefit from working with an SPP, however few players are using this service, perhaps in part due to hockey culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to address the following research questions:   

1. Develop an understanding of the usage of mental skills in collegiate hockey players.  

2. Develop an understanding of the perceptions of mental skills held by hockey players.  

3. Better understand the impact if any of how hockey culture on the above beliefs. 

METHODS 

Participants 

Participants consisted of three collegiate athletes that competed in men’s hockey (participants four – six) and three collegiate athletes that competed in women’s hockey (participants one – three). Three of the six participants competed at the highest level of collegiate hockey, NCAA Division I, while two competed at ACHA DI, the highest level below NCAA, and one participant competed at the ACHA DII level.  

Procedures 

A semi-structured interview guide was developed for this study to increase the consistency of the interviews and give a framework for the interviewer to follow. Although there were set questions, the guide allowed for follow-up and engagement based on the clients’ answers, allowing for flexibility and opportunities for openness for the participants (35).   

The interview guide was comprised of three sections. The first section focused on the participants’ demographics and general sport experience. This section aimed to give the participants a chance to get comfortable with the interviewer and to develop a relationship between interviewer and interviewee. The second section of the interview guide was focused on understanding the athlete’s experiences with mental training, both formal and informal in the past, as well as on their perceptions of mental training. Example questions included “Would you be open to learning more about mental skills? Why or why not?” and “Have you used or do you use mental skills?”  The third and final section focused on the participants view of hockey culture and how if at all they felt it impacted their or others use of mental skills. Example questions included “If someone asked you to explain the culture of hockey, what would you say?” and “Do you think this culture influences your views on: the use of mental skills, seeking help from a sport psychologist, and what people think about you?” “Questions in each section of the interview guide were based on prior research stemming from the previously conducted literature review. The broader themes of topics found (i.e., body checking, how players might have been using mental skills) were used to guide the development of open-ended questions for the current study to satisfy a potential gap or recommendation suggested within the previous literature.” At any point during the interview process the participant wanted to expand or discuss ideas not included in the original questions, they were encouraged to do so freely, and this information was included as part of their experience and responses.   

IRB approval was obtained for this study. Once approval was obtained participants were recruited via convenience sampling. Specifically, as the primary researcher of this study was part of the collegiate hockey community, they reached out to coaches they knew to ask that they send a recruitment email to their athletes. Additionally, posts were made on social media via the primary and secondary researchers’ university and personal pages. Once participants emailed the research team indicating that they were interested in participating they were scheduled for a Zoom interview. Participants were interviewed until saturation was met.  “Saturation is defined as “when no new data or information is being produced, was believed to have occurred within the six participants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Saunders et al., 2018).  

At the beginning of the interview, participants were sent a link to follow that included the research notification and an opportunity for them to consent to participation in the study. Zoom was chosen as it allowed for interviews with participants in a large geographical location and served to increase the convenience of participation for the participants.  Interviews were conducted by the first and second author of the study and lasted between 25-45 minutes.  Although every participant was asked the same questions from the interview guide, in the same way, the order with which they were asked and the extent of the follow up conversation was guided by the participant themselves, in an attempt to build open communication with the participants. Elaboration language such as “Can you tell me more about that?” or “Why do you think that is the case?” were used to give more detail and paint a fuller picture of the participants experiences (35). Interviews were recorded and transcribed using Yuja programming. Transcripts were then checked by the primary author for accuracy and any changes necessary were made. 

Data Analyses  

Coding and analysis were done using Braun and Clarke’s guide for reflexive thematic analysis (8, 9). Specifically, the aim was to follow an inductive, semantic, and realist approach to data analysis in the pursuit of finding meaning in the data. This method allowed the primary author, to identify, analyze, and assess patterns or themes within the transcripts. Using this method of data analysis also allowed for greater flexibility in theme extraction. At each stage she documented my work to help ensure the development of themes was clear and could be followed by the secondary author and a second coder who has brought in to increase trustworthiness at a later stage of the data analysis process. This was a six-phase approach in which she first became familiar with the data set by reading through the transcribed interviews multiple times, noting any initial thoughts or ideas. She then began to code initial thoughts, making sure to re- read the transcripts as thoughts and emerging themes were being identified, followed by a more in-depth analysis of the transcribed data by defining themes with the matching data.  Although she tried to not have her experiences impact coding, to allow for an inductive approach to the coding, it was noted that as a former hockey player and coach she likely had biases that she was bringing to the coding. Therefore, a researcher who was not part of the study design or implementation also independently coded the data using the same methodology. We then analyzed the codes against the data to make sure they were representative of the data. Once we had both developed our themes, we discussed any differences and came to a consensus. This led to a set of themes and where appropriate subthemes created to help explain the experiences of the participants. Finally, by writing down the analysis process the primary researcher was able to notice patterns and connect the themes to past research, as is desired in the final step of thematic analysis (9). 

To increase the trustworthiness of this study, credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability were assessed (25, 32). Specifically, as a previous hockey player and sport psychology professional, the primary researcher recognized the biases she possessed and the potential impact it would have on the study. Therefore, not only was a second coder brought in, as noted above, but peer debriefing, with the second author of the study serving in the role, was used to challenge her assumptions and analyze the data collection and data analysis of both her and the outside coder (establishing credibility). After the two coders had met to go over their codes and came to agreement, an external auditor also reviewed both the process and the results (establishing dependability and transferability). Finally, a thick description of both the research process and the participants’ interviews are included in this manuscript to increase transferability and confirmability.   

RESULTS 

Four themes emerged that impacted if and how the players used mental training skills, their perceptions of mental training, and their perceptions of sport psychology professionals. The major themes that emerged were level of competition, exposure, and hockey culture. Furthermore, players indicated using several mental training strategies which was a final theme related to hockey players mental training use. Each theme also had sub themes, for a full list see Table 1 with further description and illustrative quotations below. 

Table 1   

Theme Chart  

Theme  Subtheme  
Level of Competition  Length of season  Intensity of the game   
Exposure   Organizational support – access to SPC    Coaching staff  Peers and teammates   Classes   Lack of exposure   
Hockey Culture  How others view hockey players and hockey culture  Participants’ views of hockey culture  
Mental Strategies Used  Skills development  Strategy development  

Level of Competition  

The level of competition theme included two subthemes. The first subtheme was length of season, with three participants noting the length of the season being a reason to use mental training. As stated by Participant 1 “Hockey is a long season too … so I think it could take a toll on your mental, but yeah.”  The second subtheme was the level of intensity present at the collegiate level where participants expressed using mental skills were more important at higher levels. For example, Participant 3 noted “College hockey is kind of a lot, it takes like a mental toll on you. I definitely am experiencing it right now. As fun as hockey is, like, it gets pretty tough.” Participant 5 who competes in the NCAA DI level, stated  

“I think it’s [mental training] super important, especially as you get older. As you climb the ranks of hockey through high school and junior hockey to college, it becomes more and more important…. Everyone’s really good hockey players when you get to this point. So, you’ve got to find an edge somewhere. So that’s when you realize you got to start doing a different mental preparation thing.”   

In contrast, Participant 4 who competes at the ACHA DI level, discussed how they recognized mental skills use but “I just wanted to train really hard, but I’ve never really wanted to train my mind … it’s just we’re there to have fun, right.” It is important to note that this was in part in comparison to many people he played with in Canada currently playing at what he perceived to be higher levels of play, “I’m just here to have fun … I got to play hockey through my whole career at school and stuff like that. That’s kinda where I’m happy. These guys [people he played with as a youth] are getting paid to play, so I’m paying to play.” (Participant 4).  The differences in the athletes’ views of the levels they competed at highlight the importance of athletes’ perception of their experiences.   

Exposure   

The theme of exposure relates to the experiences participants had about how their environment and how those within it influence their usage and perceptions of mental skills. Within this theme, five subthemes were identified: organizational support, coaching staff, peers and teammates, classes, and lack of exposure.    

For the subtheme of organization support four of the six participants expressed how they would use services provided by a SPP if this resource was available to them at the organizational level but that they did not have access with their current team (contracted by the athletic department). As expressed by Participant 5   

Yeah, I think if it [mental training] was available, I think if we had one at school right now, I think if that was available to the team, I definitely be talking to him or her. But unfortunately, it’s not something we have here. But if the opportunity presents itself, I definitely think I would see them. 

For the second subtheme of coaching staff, all six participants explained how their coaching staff influences their use and perceptions of mental skills. Three participants indicated that their coaches often offered support, emphasis on proper preparation, and suggested mental training books. Participant 6 explained their coach’s emphasis on preparation, “… [talks] about preparation stuff… like not going out the night before games, gotta get prepared. Like to make sure to stay in shape, don’t be eating like shit.” While other participants expressed how their coaching staff neglect or do not encourage mental skills use. As Participant 4 described “He mentioned them, but he just yells at us. He pretty much just tells us we’re not mentally strong … He knows like your mentality is very important, but he doesn’t know how to like build your confidence.” Further explained by Participant 2 “We’re always told growing up that hockey is 90% mental and 10% physical… they didn’t put emphasis on the mental part, but they still tried to get people to think about that too.”   

Peers and teammates were the third subtheme identified in the exposure theme. Four participants discussed the impact of peers and teammates. For instance, Participant 4 stated   

Through my coach or through my peers. I think like if my buddies were saying, yeah, like I’m using this guy and he’s awesome. Or if my coach said, here we brought this guy in there, and hear them talk and see if you like them, then I’d be more willing to try stuff like that.  

For the subtheme of classes, two participants explained how they were exposed to mental skills use through taking Sport Psychology classes as part of earning their degree. Participant 2 described where they learned to use visualization techniques “I had been doing it [visualization] already, but I learned it in school,” and Participant 4 stated “I feel like school helped me more to understand my mental skills.”   

Lastly, the lack of exposure subtheme. Of the six participants four of them discussed using mental training skills, however, none of the participants had experience with or exposure to a SPP. There was also a general misunderstanding of mental skills use. Three of the six participants asked for clarification on what mental skills are or an example of mental skills use after being asked if they use mental skills. “Like what does that entail?” (Participant 1). Misunderstanding mental training and mental health was a common trend when these participants were asked about working with a SPP. “I don’t think I need to, but if it was diagnosed that I did, then yeah, I’d be open to it,” (Participant 6).   

Hockey Culture  

A prominent discussion point was that of hockey culture and its influence on mental skills use and perceptions. Two subthemes emerged from these conversations, how others view hockey players and hockey culture, and participants’ views of hockey culture.    

The first subtheme of how others view hockey players and hockey culture was described in the following ways. For example, Participant 3 described “I would have always chosen hockey over every sport just because of the people that I’ve met and the experiences that I’ve had, like I wouldn’t change any of that.” Male participants spoke to how male hockey players are seen as ‘red flags’ or ‘a**holes’.  Participant 6 said  

Yeah, so common beliefs for hockey players, definitely like not great guys, scum bags. Like think they’re better than everyone else. I think those are typical stereotypes for sure. Don’t think those are all true … the perception of hockey players all the time isn’t great.  

When discussing perceptions of hockey players and common stereotypes, the female participants explained how people perceive them in a masculine nature. “People do see that I’m hockey player, they kinda like take a step back because normally people are like field hockey or like they don’t think of like ice hockey because that’s normally just a guy sport,” (Participant 1). Within the conversation of differences between men’s and women’s hockey were comments related to body checking. The female participants expressed how the disallowance of body checking in women’s hockey supports the common stereotypes and perceptions about women’s hockey. “They come to our games, and we don’t do that (body check) and then they think it’s boring, or they think that we’re not good or something like that … because we’re women and more fragile and we can’t get hit because we will cry,” (Participant 2). In terms of influencing mental skills use and perceptions, Participant 2 also explained how the masculine stigmas of toughness associated with mental health would prevent male players or teams to work with a sport psychology professional,   

Because men are taught from a very young age that emotion, that they’re not supposed to show emotion and they’re not supposed to be vulnerable. So that would be putting them in a state of vulnerability. And then playing hockey in the first place is their spot to get out all that stuff on the ice and in an aggressive way.  

The second subtheme was participants’ views of hockey culture and their experiences within it. Three participants discussed how being mentally tough and being perceived as tough is important in hockey and impacted their use or lack of use of mental training strategies and/or seeing a sport psychology professional. Participant 1 noted “…I think just like the overall mental toughness and needing to have thick skin and like on and off the ice. And that if you can work on that, then it’s going to make you a better player.” Despite this, two participants alluded to their perceived importance of mental toughness in different way, like disregarding the need for SPP use or mental skills because they felt like support from their teammates was enough to help them, or vice versa, in that their teammates would support them in bettering themselves. As Participant 1 described “Yeah, I think if you’re not in a good culture, then definitely I would have to seek help, but being in a good culture, I don’t think you’d need to get help if you’re in a good environment.”   

Mental Skills Strategies Used   

Two subthemes, skill development and strategy use were identified within this theme. Mental skills used included staying focused and managing emotions. Participant 2 described   

“I don’t know, try, and keep all of my emotions down. Like I don’t get, I get very invested into the game and I get very emotional like as the game progresses and calming that down so I can focus on just playing instead of dealing with all this emotion plus having to play as well.” Participant 1 also noted “I think it’s a good way to talk to yourself and you don’t have to bring it out on other people. It’s more just between you and yourself.”  

The subtheme of mental strategies included breathing exercises, visualization, and preparation-based routines. Participant 6 highlighted the importance of their pregame routine and using visualization to help them prepare for their game, despite misunderstanding mental skills use previously,  

I usually put my AirPods in and just go I get ready like pretty, fairly early. I get dressed little early put my AirPods in and then go sit on the bench and just like look at the clean ice like after the Zamboni is done and just kind of visualize like what I’m gonna do out there.  

Participant 2 said “Yeah I like to visualize… I think it gives me a little bit more confidence, especially if it’s a big game and I’m nervous and it gives me the confidence that I could do the little things right.” Participant 5 stated   

I think visualization is a big mental skill that I use. Being a goalie, I think it’s a big part of the game… I like to spend the night if I know I’m playing the night before, I’d like to, before I go to bed, close my eyes and imagine game scenarios against who were playing and their players and fix myself in different situations so it can be best prepared for whatever is thrown at me during the game.  

DISCUSSION 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and usage of mental skills in collegiate hockey players, along with perceptions of how hockey culture impacts these beliefs through interviews with current college hockey players. Interviews with six collegiate hockey players led to the following four themes emerging: Level of Competition, Exposure, Hockey Culture, and Mental Strategies Used. Within Level of Competition, two subthemes were identified: length of season and intensity of the game. Five subthemes were identified within Exposure: organizational support and access, coaching staff, peers and teammates, classes, and lack of exposure. Within Hockey Culture, two subthemes were found: others’ view of hockey culture and participants’ views of hockey culture. Lastly, two themes emerged from Mental Strategies Used: skills development and strategy development.   

When assessing the participants’ views on level of play and intensity, participants at the highest collegiate level found mental skills use to be more important than participants at lower levels, with one participant even noting that he did not use mental training strategies since he did not see the reason to for his lower level of play. Players noting level of play and intensity of the game as reasons to use or not use mental training highlights the need for more education on how mental training can be beneficial at all levels of the game.   

 The fact that none of the participants had worked with a SPP or had a coach who advocated or taught mental training strategies adds to this view.  Despite this, four participants still used a variety of mental strategies, most commonly imagery and breathing exercises. Given that these participants have had no experience in working with a SPP, nor encouragement from those around them to do so, it is of interest to determine where hockey players may be learning these strategies and if they are using them in an effective way. Future research should consider addressing this question via quantitative research that can better understand how mental strategies are being learned and implemented by athletes.  

Participants all noted not having access to an SPP, but that they would be willing to work with an SPP if they had access. Research conducted by Wrisberg et al. (41) at the NCAA DI level suggests that this may be due to lack of funds and differing perceptions athletic departments hold that prevent them from adding an SPP to their staff as an available resource to their student-athletes. Earlier research conducted by Wilson et al. (38) on athletic directors’ perceptions of SPPs show that higher value was placed on support staff that focused on physical wellbeing of student athletes (athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches) rather than consultation services provided by an SPP. This highlights the importance of the organization when it comes to athletes’ mental skills use. These findings support past research that indicated leadership was an important aspect of influencing the beliefs and values of those within a sporting organization’s culture. (14, 36). This also lends support to the current recommendations by the NCAA that athletics departments focus on athlete mental well-being in their hiring practices, including hiring those who specialize in sport psychology (30, 31).  

Coaches and peers were also shown to be important stakeholders when it came to athletes’ use and perception of mental training. The role of the coach as an influence on athletes is well established in the literature with Chu and Tang (11) noting coaches are the most important social agent of influence on an athlete’s autonomy. Furthermore, this finding supports past research that has indicated that a coaching staff’s perception of an SPP or mental skills use is crucial in how their athletes perceive them as well (5, 15, 37, 40, 43). In this study, participants noted that their coaches heavily encouraged mental toughness but none of the participants were taught about mental training or what exactly their coach meant, or ways to achieve mental toughness. This lack of support for mental training while expecting athletes to be “mentally tough” indicates athletes are being asked to achieve a psychological level of performance without the necessary support. As we would never expect athletes to “just get fit” without giving them resources to do so, this highlights the need for applied sport psychology to be more accessible to athletes. With this in mind, it is important for both future researchers and applied professionals to focus on how to get the important stakeholders within sport to advocate and promote sport psychology use. Furthermore, these results highlight the lack of access players had and the role this plays in athletes lacking an understanding of what mental training entails and how they could use psychological skills training for their sport performance.    

Hockey culture was a prevalent theme within these interviews. All six participants addressed how much they enjoyed hockey culture, how unique it was to be a part of a hockey team, and that their team was a family. The tight knit community of a hockey team indicates a need for the SPP to be embedded with the team to have the greatest impact. Workshops conducted by Eubank et al. (13) at the 2013 CESP Conference discussed the importance of an SPP fully understanding and being engaged within the team’s culture as a monumental aspect of success. Participants all commented on hockey being seen as a ‘guys sport’, using words like “masculine” and “macho” to describe how they believe the sport is perceived by others.  They noted the stigmas of toughness and hypermasculine culture as being a deterrent to using mental training or seeing an SPP; this supports past research (1-3, 7, 14, 18) that found hypermasculinity as a large component of hockey culture is still prevalent today. Interestingly, female participants discussed the same stigmas, but they were less likely to be a deterrent to using sport psychology services for them, instead noting that these stereotypes and perceptions of others, and those within hockey were more likely to lead to perceptions of female players being seen as masculine, or less feminine. Not the area of focus for this study, but future research should investigate how these perceptions lead to female players continuing in the game and their perceptions of themselves as both hockey players and women.   

Interestingly two of the participants noted they were Canadian, and in both cases, they discussed the culture of hockey being different in America. As we did not explicitly ask questions related to country differences impacting hockey culture for all participants, we did not include it in our results, however it may be an area for future researchers to consider.   

As is the case with all research it is important to note potential limitations in these findings.  First, there was a lack of representation across all divisions among the sample. Furthermore, participants were all competing in Midwest or Eastern regions of the United States indicating that this sample was limited in its breadth across different levels and areas across the United States. 

APPLICATIONS IN SPORT AND FUTURE RESEARCH 

The themes that emerged indicate players lack of knowledge about mental training in hockey could be impacting both the use and perception of mental training.  The interviews made it apparent that the players feel a deep sense of attachment to their view of hockey as a unique culture, and it being a family. Therefore, SPPs interested in working with hockey teams should make sure to be aware of the need to be an immersed part of this family when it comes to getting buy-in with athletes. Additionally, SPP’s will also need to be aware of the lack of education or inaccurate education hockey players may have about PST and how they can be an asset to the players’ experiences. 

 An SPP should become familiar with the unique culture of hockey, including differences in the men’s and women’s game, as well as lack of exposure to mental training that their players have had when beginning a PST program with a team or individual.  Notably, the culture of hockey upholds specific behaviours that may challenge an SPP. Specific language and routines may take time to understand in terms of application of SPP workshops and skills, SPPs should be cognizant of this adjustment period and the significance of these cultural pillars present within hockey and its participants. Additionally, there are meaningful differences between that of men’s hockey and women’s hockey. SPPs need to understand the processes associated with each and with highlighted importance of the expectations and stereotypes that may be present and affect both men’s and women’s hockey players. In addition, the course of career play differs significantly between the two. Men’s hockey has varying paths and opportunities available, with the recent updates between the NCAA and CHL that supports the playing of male players in both of these leagues. However, the opportunities for female hockey players is slowly changing. SPPs should become familiar with the emergence of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) and the significance this holds for many aspiring female players and the development of women’s hockey. Lastly, as many participants stated within the current study, not all hockey players may have had exposure to or experience working with a SPP. In that, SPPs need to approach the instruction of mental skills work and provisions of resources that support a breadth of existing knowledge present within the population they are working with. Specifically, in that the understanding of a niche and protected culture of hockey, coupled with a potential lack of experience, may mean that the SPP needs to continuously assess for knowledge and experience while planning specific programming for hockey teams and players.  

Future research should consider interviewing hockey players from other areas and levels. Specifically, since the sample of participants in this study was those in the Midwest and Eastern Regions of the United States, expanding to different geographic regions or countries would potentially lead to additional information. Finally, given the findings of this study, interview questions for future research might explore topics such as the specific mental skills participants use or find valuable, ask for further clarification or examples of hockey culture norms and perspectives.  

CONCLUSIONS 

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate how collegiate hockey players use and perceive mental skills and determine the influence of hockey culture on these perceptions. The findings suggest that level of play, exposure, and hockey culture all play a heavy role in how collegiate hockey players use and perceive mental training. Participants described psychological strategies such as imagery, breathing exercises, and preparation routines. These findings are crucial for sport psychology professionals in understanding how to work effectively within the niche sporting culture of hockey. The uniqueness of hockey culture makes it important to study this group specifically, without making assumptions about their experiences with psychological skills training based on research in other sports.    

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2025-02-14T15:26:23-06:00March 21st, 2025|Sport Training, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on In Their Own Voices: Factors Effecting Collegiate Hockey Player Use and Perception of Mental Skills
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Maximizing Youth Sports Engagement on Social Media: How Visual Impact and Message Appeal Shape Consumer Responses Online

Authors: Wan S. Jung1, Won Yong Jang2, and Soo Rhee3

1Department of Professional Communications, Farmingdale State College, New York
2Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
3Department of Mass Communication, Towson University, Maryland

Corresponding Author:

Wan S. Jung, Ph.D
Knapp Hall 30
2350 Broadhollow Road, Farmingdale, NY 11735-1021
[email protected]
934-420-2276

Wan S. Jung, PhD is an Associate Professor of Professional Communications at Farmingdale State College, NY. His research interests focus on the credibility assessment process of digital information.

Won Yong Jang, PhD is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. He specializes in 1) international communication, 2) news media and society in East Asian countries, 3) climate change policy & communication, 4) public opinion on North Korea’s Nuclear Program, and 5) territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Soo Rhee, PhD is a Professor at Towson University, Maryland. Her research interests include luxury brand advertising, gender portrayals in advertising, dynamics of electronic word-of-mouth, cross-cultural studies in advertising and message strategies in health advertising.

ABSTRACT
An increasing number of people rely on the Internet as their primary information source and use it to share their opinions and thoughts with others. Generally, individuals adopt a systematic approach when processing sports information, evaluating its completeness and accuracy due to the serious consequences of incomplete or inaccurate information, such as monetary loss and negative impacts on child development. However, our study finds that the heuristics of online information, even with subtle changes in design features, generate more positive attitudinal and behavioral changes compared to central cues (i.e., informational posting). Our findings suggest a dissociation between involvement and the effects of heuristics. This study also provides an empirical framework for predicting how people process information in digital media environments. Additional findings and implications are discussed.

Key Words: youth sport communication, visual impact of social media posting, message appeal

INTRODUCTION
The youth sport market is a huge and fast-growing industry, ranging from organized sports leagues to recreational activities. The market for youth sports in the United States stood at 15.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 and grew to 19.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2019 (11). With a fast-growing trend (i.e., a growth rate of 25.4% from 2017 to 2019) with various options, parents became more active in searching for information. As social media are pervasive, rapidly evolving, and increasingly influencing parents’ daily life and their sport consumption, parents increasingly turn to the internet as a source of community, which helps them connect, communicate, and share information (18).

The rapid growth of online sports information production and dissemination through social media parenting communities (e.g., Facebook local groups and Nextdoor) raises important research questions about how individuals process online information provided by other consumers (i.e., experienced parents whose child(ren) have participated in your sport programs) in youth sport consumption decision making. Moreover, since sport consumers make decisions about whether or not to adopt online sports information based on their own judgement (e.g., attitudinal formation), how individuals evaluate online information is central to sports communication agendas.

Although the formation of attitudes toward information can be attributed to multiple aspects of that information (e.g., source credibility, information completeness), sport consumers using online resources are more reliant on how the information is presented than on the quality of the argument (10), and subtle graphical adjustments become relevant when online parenting community members share their own experiences with other members on social media platforms. In order to emphasize their own views, web users often create visual prominence using subtle design elements, such as capitalized subject lines, copy-and-paste text art (also called keyboard art, e.g., ≧◡≦), or bullet-point symbols. In addition to subtle design changes, the characteristics of the online posting can be varied based on the degree of informativeness (i.e., emotion-based versus information-based).

The purpose of the current study is twofold. First, it will explore the effect on attitudinal formation and behavioral intentions of the message appeals and subtle graphical adjustments of posts in online parenting communities in the youth sport consumption context. Second, the study will investigate whether the strength of the relationship between attitude and behavioral intentions varies based on message appeals. Overall, the study will seek to advance understanding of digital media by examining how small graphical changes and message appeals impact youth sport consumers’ attitudes and behaviors when searching for consumer-generated information (e.g., testimonials) in online communities.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Parent-to-Parent Online Information in Youth Sport Consumption
“It takes a village to raise a child” is a proverb to explain the role of and community support in parenting. As social aspect is one of the primary factors that drives parents and their children to be involved in sport program (1), the influence of other parents’ opinion and the role of parent community are even more prominent in youth sport consumer’s decision making process. Braunstein-Minkove & Metz (2019) noted in their research on the role of mothers in sport consumption that youth sport consumption might not always about the sport but the experience. Therefore, parents of youth rely on other parents’ opinion to obtain relevant and sufficient information and evaluate various youth sport program options available. In order to provide the best sporting and exercise experience for their children, parents of young children are willing to hear voices of other parents (i.e., testimonial) regarding the type of sports, sports programs, and sporting events their children would participate in.

With the modern technology and the advent of social media, the notion of the village (or supporting community) has been expanded from a physical village to a digital community. Social media platforms support a variety of user generated content to be disseminated to other users and allows users to participate in interactive discussions. Among the various types of social media platforms, Facebook have become the most prevalent web-based service in the world (21) and remaining the most popular site by far (12). Also, Facebook recently provides an option to mark the group type as parenting group, which gives parents new ways to discover and engage with their communities (5). Though the role of online community and the influence of information from other youth sport consumers (i.e., testimonials from other parents in such online community) in youth sport consumer’s decision-making process became more prominent, there is no previous research to explore the effects of the presentation of online information on consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral response in youth sport consumption context.

The Impact of Visual Prominence
Quick and low effort cognitive information processing has been investigated in the field of psychology since the 1970s (e.g., 9, 13), and the research indicates that impression formation is the result of the perceiver’s rapid response to selective or incomplete information. In other words, one’s appraisal of an event occurs without intention or conscious thought. Theories of impression formation in the context of digital communication have been developed by Fogg (2003) and Wathen and Burkell (2002), and their studies suggest that visual prominence—the visual salience that allows people to effortlessly notice the presence of graphic elements (e.g., bold vs. non-bold font)—is a primary driver of attitudinal formation, rather than information quality.

The impact of visual prominence can also be explained by individuals’ reliance, when making decisions, on transactive memory systems, which consist of two key elements: internal memory (e.g., personal experience) and external memory (e.g., another person’s expertise; 14). The presence of an external memory will activate a transactive memory system, and such a dependency on external memory increases efficiency and cognitive labor power (20). Thus, external sources of knowledge can have a significant impact on one’s perception of what to accept as true and how confidently to accept it.

The theoretical and empirical evidence for transactive memory systems is based on offline social interactions (e.g., interactions within family groups). However, recent studies suggest that online sources can also trigger transactive memory systems due to the similarity between the process of outsourcing cognitive tasks to other people and the process of outsourcing cognitive tasks to the Internet (6). This nonhuman transactive memory network is further fueled by the unique features of the Internet (e.g., accessibility, breadth, immediacy of information), but such features may distort one’s ability to calibrate personal knowledge because the boundary between internal and external memory becomes unclear. That is, individuals often mix up information obtained through the Internet with information stored in the brain, and this illusion inflates self-ratings of competence regarding personal knowledge and decision-making (17). Recent research on such illusions also suggests that people tend to believe they can solve problems even in unfamiliar domains and that their decision-making processes are often based on heuristics, such as visual prominence (7, 8); the impact of visual prominence would thus be greater in digital media environments.

Since online parenting community members can establish the visual prominence of their postings on social media platforms only with subtle graphical adjustments, the current study will investigate how subtle changes (e.g., capitalizing subject lines, use of text art) to posts in online youth sport communities influence individuals’ attitude formation and behavioral intentions. Given the exploratory nature of the topic of individual information judgment in digital media environments, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H1: Visually prominent postings in online youth sport communities form stronger attitudes than less prominent postings.
H2: Visually prominent postings in online youth sport communities form stronger behavioral intentions than less prominent postings.

The Impact of Involvement on Message Appeals
The persuasiveness and prevalence of various appeal types (e.g., emotional, informative) have been extensively examined in different contexts, such as brand familiarity (Rhee & Jung, 2019), cultural variability (Han & Shavitt, 1994), and involvement (Flora & Maibach, 1990). However, less is known about the differential effects of appeal types in the context of online youth sport communities, and the current study therefore presents an exploration of the question of which type of message appeal is most persuasive in such communities.
The elaboration likelihood model (ELM; 16) is one of the most prominent theoretical frameworks employed in the message appeal literature and is applied in various contexts, such as public health service announcements (Perse et al., 1996), crisis management (Lee & Atkinson, 2019), and advertising (Stafford & Day, 1995). Studies have also commonly found a moderating effect of involvement on message appeals, and according to the ELM, people tend to rely on argument quality (e.g., information completeness, comprehensiveness) when processing information under high involvement conditions, with persuasion less likely to occur through peripheral cues, such as peers’ emotional experiences. The converse is also true under low involvement conditions.

However, a recent study by Jung et al. (2017) found evidence that contradicts the prevailing literature on the role of involvement in digital media environments; the study claims that individuals often find it hard to motivate themselves to process information thoroughly, regardless of involvement levels, due to the nature of the Internet, which inundates them with massive amounts of non-verifiable information. Individuals therefore tend to compromise the accuracy of their decisions, which can require extensive cognitive effort, by relying on the heuristic aspects of information.

In addition, in the context of online youth sports communities, people tend to seek others’ prior experiences (e.g., a coach’s personality) and emotionally supportive messages because any objective information about a youth sports program (e.g., fees, coach’s experience, facilities) can be easily found through sources such as the program’s website. It can therefore be assumed that the moderating role of involvement in appeal types might be limited by the dominance of social media. Nevertheless, because there is still insufficient evidence for the limited role of involvement in the social media context, we propose the following research question:
RQ1: What effect does involvement have on the appeal types of posts in online youth sport communities?

The Moderating Impact of Involvement on the Attitude–Intention Relationship
Attitudes are among the most significant predictors of behavioral intentions in psychology. According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB), intention functions as an antecedent of behavior and is attributable to individual attitudes, together with subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991). Although a number of studies have provided strong evidence for the relationship between intentions and the three causal variables of the TPB, a meta-analytic study by Cooke and Sheeran (2004) also noted that less than 42% of the variance in intentions can be explained by those variables.

Consequently, there have been numerous attempts to increase the predictive power of the TPB by exploring moderators of the relationship between intention and the TPB variables, such as attitudinal ambivalence (Armitage & Conner, 2000) and certainty (Bassili, 1996). In addition to these moderating variables, Petty et al. (1983) has offered theoretical and empirical evidence that the attitude–intention relationship is more consistent under high involvement conditions, because attitudes established by highly involved people are more stable than those of lowly involved people. Verplanken (1989) also examined whether involvement can explain additional variance in the attitude–intention relationship, although that study was in the context of nuclear energy.

Therefore, the current study will examine the moderating role of involvement in the attitude–intention relationship in the sport communication context.
H3: High involvement will be associated with greater attitude–intention consistency than low involvement.

METHOD
Subjects and Procedure
192 participants who had parenting experiences (male = 64%) from the United States between the ages of 20 and 55 completed the study through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). For participants’ ethnicity, the most common ethnicity was Caucasian (53.6%), followed by Asian (33.9%), African American (5.2%), Hispanic (3.6%), and other racial backgrounds (3.6%). To participate in the study, subjects were requested to provide electronic consent. And subjects were debriefed and compensated upon completion of the study.

Experimental Treatment Conditions
To investigate the effects of visual prominence (high vs. low prominence) and message appeals (emotional vs. informative message) on online youth sport program postings, four versions of online postings were created as stimuli, and the subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions: low prominence and emotional (n = 49), high prominence and emotional (n = 49), low prominence and informative (n = 49), and high prominence and informative (n = 45).

The postings contained an online community member-created message about a local youth soccer program. The community member-created posting consisted of either factual information about the soccer program (informative appeal) (i.e., up to 12 kids in one session with two coaches, all are CPR first aid and AED certified, and having an indoor field) or user experiences (emotional appeal) (i.e., it was such an amazing experience and my son loves his current coach). A youth soccer program was selected as the topic for this study because of popularity of the sport among young parents. The manipulation of visual prominence was carried out by differentiating graphic elements between high prominence and low prominence conditions. Since parent community members on social media platforms can emphasize their posting with subtle graphical alterations, the high prominence version was designed to help the study participants notice the key messages by capitalizing key words, using a bulleted list and line-breaks in order to increase readability, and using a text art. The low prominence version lacks those design features.

Dependent Measures
Attitude toward the online posting
The attitude toward the online youth program posting was measured using
three semantically differential items (i.e., good/bad, favorable/unfavorable, negative/positive) emerged from the literature on the scale (Lee & Hong, 2016). The scale was internally consistent (Cronbach’s  = .91, M = 4.70, SD = 1.81).

Behavioral Intentions
Subjects were also asked to answer their intentions to 1) recommend the youth soccer program on the posting you just read and 2) register for the soccer program in the future on 7-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 (not at all) 7 (extremely). The items were averaged to create a behavioral intention scale (Cronbach’s  = .83, M = 4.33, SD = 1.73).

Independent Measure
Involvement
Involvement in sports activities may influence the attitudinal formation and behavioral intentions. Thus, this study measured personal involvement with sports activities by using three 7-point (1 = strongly disagree, 7 strongly agree) Likert-type scales, the participants reported on how much they agreed with the following three statements: “I enjoy playing sport,” “Sport plays a central role in my life,” and “Sport says a lot about who I am.” The three items were averaged to measure involvement (Cronbach’s  = .86, M = 5.38, SD = 1.35). This study used a median split to categorize high-involvement (N = 86) and low-involvement conditions (N = 83).

RESULTS
Manipulation Checks
The visual prominence manipulations were examined. Using two seven-point sematic differential items, the participants were asked to rate the extent to which they thought the format of the online posting they just read were “attractive/not attractive” and “likable/not likable” (Cronbach’s  = .83, M = 4.81, SD = 1.75). A t test between the two prominence conditions (low vs. high prominence) showed subjects felt that the youth sport program posting was more visually prominent when it included noticeable graphic elements (M = 5.60, SD = 1.23) than when it lacked the elements (M = 4.05, SD = 1.84), t (190) = 6.82, p < .001.

This study measured the degree of informativeness of online postings (emotional versus informative) by asking participants to rate the extent to which they though the posting they just read was “emotional” and “warmhearted” (Cronbach’s  = .80 M = 4.39, SD = 1.61). A t test between two message appeal conditions showed that the emotional appeal group (M = 4.94, SD = 1.27) perceived the posting to be significantly more emotional than the informative appeal group (M = 3.82, SD = 1.73), t (190) = 5.11, p < .001.
H1 and H2: Visual Prominence Main Effects

Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the significant impacts of visual prominence, message appeal, and involvement on attitudes and behavioral intentions. H1 and H2 suggest that participants reading visually prominent postings would form stronger attitudes and behavioral intentions than did participants reading less prominent postings. Follow-up analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were also performed the examine the effect of visual prominence for each of the dependent variables. Findings revealed that the effect of visual prominence was pronounced in relation to being able to determine consumers’ attitudes (M_High Prominence = 5.30, SD = 2.02 vs. M_Low Prominence = 4.14, SD = 1.38; F (1, 169) = 20.90, p < .001, partial η2 = .12) and behavioral intentions (M_High Prominence = 4.69, SD = 1.64 vs. M_Low Prominence = 4.01, SD = 1.73; F (1, 169) = 7.24, p < .01, partial η2 = .04). Thus, H1 and H2 were supported.



RQ1 and RQ2: Influence of Involvement on Visual Prominence and Message Appeals
The impact of consumers’ involvement on visual prominence and messages appeals were examined by 2 (visual prominence) X 2 (involvement) ANOVAs and 2 (message appeal) X 2 (involvement) ANOVAs with attitudes toward the online posting and behavioral intentions as dependent variables. The ANOVA results showed that that there were not significant interaction effects of the involvement-appeal relation and the involvement-visual prominence relation. The p values of the aforementioned relations were greater than .37. However, the impacts of visual prominence and message appeals were greater under both involvement conditions (see Figure 1 and 2).

H3: Moderating effect of involvement on the attitude-intention relation
This study anticipated that the attitude toward the online posting would form a stronger impact on the formation of behavioral intentions for high involvement conditions. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to examine whether involvement modifies the magnitude of the attitude-intention relation. Then, each correlation coefficient values for the high- and low-involvement conditions was converted into z scores by using Fisher’s r to z transformation. In order to compare the z scores for the two conditions, the following formula was implemented to determine the observed z score: Zobserved = (Z1−Z2) ∕ (square root of [1∕N1−3] + (1∕N2−3))

For the high involvement condition (n = 83), the correlation coefficient for the attitude-intention relation was .49 (p < .001). For the low involvement condition (n = 84), the correlation was .25 (p < .05). The test statistics, z = 1.78, p < .001 (one-tailed test), indicate that the correlation in the high involvement condition is significantly higher than it is in the low involvement condition. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 is supported.

DISCUSSION
Our findings suggest a lack of association between involvement and the effects of heuristics. The moderating role of involvement has been well established since the introduction of Petty et al.’s (1983) ELM and Chaiken’s (1987) heuristic-systematic model. According to those theories, involvement is a significant determinant in the selection of an information processing route (peripheral versus central). It is also commonly acknowledged in the sport communication field that individuals generally use a systematic mode (i.e., evaluating completeness/accuracy) when processing online sport information under high-involvement conditions in order to avoid the serious consequences of incomplete or inaccurate information (e.g., monetary loss, negative impacts on child development). However, our study found that the non-systematic mode is often activated for both high-involvement and low-involvement participants, and this finding thus contributes to the literature on individuals’ approaches to online information processing.

According to evidence-accumulation models (2), individuals reach a conclusion once there is enough evidence to support a particular case, but they can also alter the amount of evidence needed for coming to that decision. Although individuals generally want to make accurate decisions, Internet users often compromise the accuracy of their decisions by reducing the amount of evidence required to validate the information they are investigating. This tendency is attributable to online information overload, in which individuals experience difficulties in understanding the nature of a particular topic (Robin & Holmes, 2008). The tendency suggests a new general pattern of the speed–accuracy trade-off (SAT) in social media environments. In line with the SAT, there are two driving forces in the decision-making process (4); one emphasizes faster (or more efficient) decisions, while the other emphasizes higher accuracy. Although there are trade-offs between speed and accuracy, the two can be pursued independently, but they produce a wide spectrum of outcomes, from slower but more accurate decisions to quicker but less accurate decisions. In social media environments, individuals are motivated to engage in less-effortful information processing and are more likely to trade accuracy for speed in the decision-making process.

The current study also found another reason for further examining the role of involvement in social media environments. It has been assumed that persuasion is less likely to occur through emotional messages when an individual is highly involved in an issue because people tend to scrutinize issue-relevant information. However, our findings suggest that emotional messages can be more persuasive than informational messages regardless of the level of involvement, especially in the online youth sport community context, and these findings can be explained by the types of information individuals seek in online communities. Objective information about a youth program (e.g., fees, coaches’ experience, facilities) can be easily found through sources such as the youth program’s website, but people also tend to seek others’ prior experiences and emotionally supportive messages when joining online communities.
It is important to stress that the attitude–intention relationship varies with involvement levels. Our study shows that the attitudes of high-involvement participants are more predictive of the intention to perform a specific act (e.g., signing up a youth sport program) than the attitudes of low-involvement participants. Our findings regarding the attitude–intention relationship suggest that the moderating effect of involvement on that relationship is applicable to not only traditional media environments (e.g., Krosnick, 1988; Verplanken, 1989), but also to social media environments.

In addition to the theoretical implications of this study, understanding parents’ information processing in assessing youth sport program is an integral part of the sport communication landscape. With the growing importance of (local) parenting community groups on social media and the impact of user generated message, this study will help youth sport service providers understand the effective way of crafting online information. This study will shed lights on communication strategies for youth sport providers when they try to utilize a form of testimonial in introducing their services to the market. This study will also lead how social influencer marketing would be employed in delivering and disseminating the promotional messages to the consumers.

This study has some limitations. All its subjects were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Although MTurk respondents tend to be more diverse than student samples in terms of demographic, psychographic, and geographic characteristics, some reliability issues (e.g., the work ethic of MTurk respondents) are unavoidable (3). Another limitation is that this study was conducted with samples of people who had parenting experiences because the study used a youth soccer program to develop the experimental stimuli, and the context of parenting might amplify reactions to emotional messages. We therefore recommend that future studies be conducted with more diverse samples and more popular sports topics (e.g., local sports events) in order to exclude the specific study topic and characteristics of the sample as potentially confounding factors.

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2024-11-04T18:10:35-06:00November 22nd, 2024|Contemporary Sports Issues, General, Research, Sports Studies, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Maximizing Youth Sports Engagement on Social Media: How Visual Impact and Message Appeal Shape Consumer Responses Online
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