The relationship of demographic and psychological variables to career maturity of junior college student-athletes.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the career maturity of junior college student-athletes. Specifically investigated was the relationship of demographic (e.g., gender, age, race, and year in school) and psychological variables (e.g., athletic identity, career self-efficacy, and career development locus of control) and their relationship to career maturity. Participants included 259 (74 females and 178 males) junior-college student-athletes. Overall, 145 freshmen and 114 sophomores completed the survey. The majority of the participants (n = 185) were Caucasian and 74 were African-American. Each student-athlete completed a survey packet consisting of the demographic information questionnaire, the Career Maturity Inventory, the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Career Development Locus of Control Scale. Results revealed that the demographic variables accounted for a significant amount of the variance in predicting career maturity of junior college student-athletes (r =.29, R{dollar}\\sp2{dollar} =.09). The psychological variables accounted for a significant amount of the variance in predicting career maturity (M = 16.3, SD = 3.6) scores of participants (r =.41, R{dollar}\\sp2{dollar} =.17). The seven variables predicted a significant proportion of the variance in career maturity scores (R{dollar}\\sp2{dollar} =.26, {dollar}F\\ (7,\\ 251)=12.43,{dollar} p {dollar}<{dollar}.0001). The majority of the variance for the model was explained by career locus of control (11%, M = 7.1, SD = 2.7), career self-efficacy (6%, M = 170.8, SD = 32.0), and gender (6%). Age (1%), race (1%), year (.3%), and athletic identity (.4%, M = 50.1, SD = 10.7) contributed little to the variance. This study examined the predictive relationship of selected psychological and demographic variables to career maturity levels of junior college student-athletes. Future research should examine if these psychological variables are related to other samples of colleges student-athletes.

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