The Effect of College Student Athletes' Academic Motivation and Athletic Motivation on Overall College Satisfaction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to acquire information about student athletes’ academic motivation, athletic motivation, and overall college satisfaction in relation to gender. The participants included 101 varsity student athletes from a major Division I, southern institution. Gaston’s (2002) Student Athletes’ Motivation toward Sports and Academics Questionnaire (SAMSAQ) was used to measure the student athletes’ motivation toward their two most prominent roles in college: academics and athletics. The College Student Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSSQ) developed by Betz, Betz, & Menne (1992) was used to measure the student athletes overall satisfaction with their college experience. An academic-athletic balance score developed by Althouse (2007) was used to measure the difference between student athletes’ academic and athletic motivation scores used on the SAMSAQ. The balance score of each student athlete was compared with their CSSQ score to determine if there was a correlation between academic and athletic balance and the overall college satisfaction of the student athlete. The results of the study suggest that significant differences exist between male and female student athletes in regards to academic motivation (p = 0.002), athletic motivation (p = 0.038) and academic-athletic balance (p = 0.001). However, no significant differences exist between male and female student athletes and levels of overall college satisfaction (p = 0.778), and there was no correlation between academic-athletic balance and levels of overall college satisfaction (p = 0.205)