Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
7253266 Psychology of Sport and Exercise 2016 43 Pages PDF
Abstract
Competitive student athletes who experience the typical challenges inherent in high school-to-university transitions must also overcome sport-related difficulties which can undermine their academic motivation and class attendance due to competitions, fatigue, injuries, identity issues, and novel training environments (MacNamara & Collins, 2010; Simons et al., 1999). In an eight-month quasi-experimental, randomized treatment field study, an attribution-based motivation treatment (Attributional Retraining: AR) was administered to student athletes (n = 185) and non-athletes (n = 281) who differed in perceived control beliefs (±1 SD) in a two-semester, online course. Simple slope regression analyses revealed the AR (vs. no-AR) treatment assisted competitive student athletes who had low control beliefs by increasing perceived success in the course (b = 0.84, p = 0.038), post-treatment test performance (b = 11.68, p = 0.001), year-end course grades (b = 6.32, p = 0.017), and by reducing course withdrawals (b = −1.00, p = 0.034, OR = 0.37). These results demonstrate the benefits of an attribution-based motivation treatment for vulnerable student-athletes in terms of perceived course success, performance, and persistence in making the transition from high school to college.
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