Capital Matters: Social Sustaining Capital and the Development of Black Student-Athletes

How is social capital nurtured and made meaningful in the development of black student-athletes in historically white institutional (HWI) settings? Research explicitly exploring an understanding of nurturing social capital related to the development of black student-athletes is scarce. This collective case study investigates black student-athletes’ accrual and meaning-making of social capital in historically white settings of higher education and intercollegiate athletics. The data analysis, guided by conceptual frames of social capital theory and critical race theory, revealed two emergent themes identified as 1) Connected with and through community and 2) Cultivating cross-cultural ties. Findings revealed similarities and nuanced differences in social capital realized by participants across two student-athlete development programs at different HWIs of higher education. Implications for intercollegiate student-athlete program designs and pedagogical implementations are discussed. Further implications from this research contribute to scholars’ deeper understandings of the contextualized sociocultural development of black intercollegiate student-athletes

The black male athlete through the prism of sport : a mixed method study examining identities, academic self-concept and experiences

textThe Black experience throughout the history sport has engendered significant transformations to the landscape and culture of both sport and society. However, in the present sociocultural climate of intercollegiate athletics, the disproportion of Black male student athletes in the revenue generating high profile sports have a unique experience in sport unlike their athlete and non-athlete counterparts. The uniqueness of these student athletes’ experiences exists in the ways in which they figure to negotiate their Blackness and their roles as an athlete and student contextualized within the current racial climate of sport culture. There remains a gap in existing literature and research of the conditions and lived experiences of Black student athletes concerning the developmental process of racial identity and its relationship with their athletic identities and academic self-concepts. The present research addresses this gap of knowledge about these stakeholders (i.e. the Black male student athlete) in sport by conducting a mix-methods study exploring the issues of identities, academic self-concept, and developing a deeper understanding based on the experiential knowledge of participants. The relationships between racial and athletic identity and academic self-concept were examined with a participant sample of Black male college football players at Division 1-A universities (N=255). Additionally, a qualitative instrumental case study grounded by Critical Race Theory explored the experiences and perceptions of eleven Black male student athletes participating in high profile athletic programs at predominately White institutions. The research findings indicate at least partial evidence of a relationship between pre-encounter assimilationist and miseducation attitudes with academic self-concept mediated by an elevated athletic identity of participants. There were five themes that emerged from the empirical materials. The themes are presented as: Lane Assignments, Allegiance to the Game versus Classroom, Race Matters??, Conformity, and Still at Work. This research illustrates that the identity, academic self-concepts and experiences of the Black male student athlete in college sport is vastly impacted by complex sociocultural systems. Findings suggest intercollegiate athletic support staff should purposefully accommodate the needs and experiences of student athletes with culturally relevant systems of practice to enhance student athlete development.Curriculum and Instructio

Ethnic identity and task value placed on sport by African American youth

Does ethnic identity play a salient role in the value ethnic minority youth place on sport? Although a large portion of youth sport participation in the United States stems from the participation of youth from various ethnic groups, this is a question not often asked by sport psychology researchers. Therefore to garner a greater understanding of how the psychosocial relationship of significant social agents and ethnic identity may relate to sport motivations, the expectancy value model of achievement behavior (Eccle’s et al., 1983) was used as a theoretical framework for the present study. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate a self ethnic identity mediated relationship between perceived parent ethnic identity expectancies and the value African American youth place on sport. One hundred and eighty African American high school athletes responded to questionnaires measuring their perceptions of parent expectations of ethnic identity development, self ethnic identity beliefs, the global value they place on sport, and the value they place on sport with reference to their ethnic group identification. Regression models were run to test mediation hypotheses (Baron & Kenny, 1986). All participants placed high value on global sport and sport with reference to their ethnic group identification. However, males consistently had higher value than female participants. Mediation tests of female data were not supported by data analyses. Therefore, mediation tests were only pursued with African American male data. The relationship of perceived parent ethnic identity expectancies with the global value males place on sport was not confirmed to be mediated by self ethnic identity of African American males. However, there was support for self ethnic identity of African American males mediating the relationship of perceived parent ethnic identity expectancies with value placed on sport with reference of ethnic group identification. This study provides support for sport psychology researchers to view ethnic identity as an important factor when assessing sport motives. Study implications and future research directions are offered

To act or not to act? Student-athlete perceptions of social justice activism

Issues related to social justice and activism have always permeated sports, but recently, due to the high profile cases of several elite-level athletes (i.e., Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe), these issues have become much more prominent in the contemporary sporting climate. Even though these highly visible actions are publicized in today’s media environment, little is known about how collegiate student-athletes perceive engaging in social justice activism. Therefore, the current study surveyed 2,092 collegiate student-athletes on their attitudes toward activism engagement using a theory of planned behavior framework with particular attention paid to how gender and ethnicity/race influenced these relationships. A series of MANOVAs indicated that female student-athletes, in relation to male student athletes, and student-athletes of color, in comparison to White student-athletes, held higher perceptions on most of the subscales related to activism. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms were significant predictors of athletes’ intention to engage in activism. In addition, interactions of the three predictors with race and gender influenced the final regression model indicating the strength of each predictor was impacted by athlete race and gender. Future research directions and implications for programming in relation to study findings are discussed