Literature Review Blog #2

Citation:

Mahoney, Michelle L. "Student-athletes' Perceptions of Their Academic and Athletic Roles: 
Intersections amongst Their Athletic Role, Academic Motivation, Choice of Major, and Career Decision Making."ProQuest. N.p., May 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2015. <http://search.proquest.com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/docview/903700328>.

Summary:
The Research conducted by Mahoney focuses on the intersections between a student-athlete's athletic and academic role.  She interviewed 18 student-athletes and found that some main themes emerged such as the athletic role being more reinforced than the academic role, and that student-athletes are part of an "elite group" in the eyes of the university.  She examines how the Role Theory and Role Conflict affect a student-athlete's view on their academic and athletic success.  What was interesting about Mahoney's study was that she found most of her subjects didn't view their responsibilities as academic or athletic, but as one interconnected responsibility.  It was almost as if they felt the burden to succeed academically and athletically as a way to "give back" to the university for giving them a scholarship.  This is where she examines how the stress levels for student-athletes sky rocket compared to non-athletes because of the pressure they face by being given a scholarship and being expected to succeed both academically and athletically.

Author:
Michelle L Mahoney.  She is a graduate from California State University-Long Beach where she received a Ed. D for Educational Leadership.  I am using her dissertation as a source.  She served at her alma mater as an Academic Counselor for Student-Athletes for 10 years from August 2003-January 2014.  She was an Athletic Academic Counselor at Mount San Antonio College for two years.  She has bounced around between colleges in California as an Adjunct Counselor.

Key Terms/Quotes:
Role Theory- a perspective in sociology and in social psychology that considers most of everyday activity to be the acting out of socially defined categories (e.g., mother, manager, teacher). Each social role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and behaviours that a person has to face and fulfill.

Role Conflict-Role conflict occurs when there are incompatible demands placed upon an employee such that compliance with both would be difficult.

" Unlike other college students, student-athletes experience conflict between the competing time 
and energy demands of their academic role and their athletic role (Sack, 1987; Simons & 
Van Rheenen, 2000). "

"The numerous responsibilities, expectations, demands, and pressures produced by 
student-athletes' academic and athletic roles have implications for their college 
experiences. How student-athletes perceive their academic and athletic roles as well as 
strategies they employ to successfully navigate these multiple roles have only been 
explored in a limited manner. As such, an exploration of their perceptions is pertinent. 
Gaining knowledge about student-athletes' perceptions of, and ways in which they 
negotiate their multiple roles, could prove valuable for those working with the college 
student-athlete population, as well as beneficial to the creation and implementation of 
collegiate policy"



"Student-athletes fulfill a variety of roles, with the most prevalent being their 
academic and athletic roles. When fulfilling multiple roles, the potential to encounter 
role conflict exists. Such conflict can generally be thought of as the simultaneous 
manifestation of two or more incompatible expectations for the behavior of an individual 
(Biddle, 1986). "

Value:
This source will help explore my research problem by analyzing the sociology concept of Role theory and Role conflict and how it can be applied to student-athletes.  It focuses on the stresses student-athletes face in balancing their academic and athletic roles at a university and how they might handle such stresses.  It breaks down the roles of student-athletes to the very core by exploring the individual student-athlete and his/her motivation for academic success, how faculty interactions plays a factor, how the NCAA eligibility requirements influence choice of major, how student-athletes view their two roles as interconnected with push and pull components, how the student-athlete is viewed as a member of an "elite group" at the university, etc.