| It has been widely assumed that "sports builds character", an assumption that sport participation engenders positive character traits universally across sports. This exploratory study was undertaken to investigate a few key aspects of this assumption using collegiate athletes (n =1661) from National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I affiliated sports programs. Two scales were constructed from survey items used in the Basic Academic Study Skills (BASS) study conducted by the NCAA, with the goal of measuring personality and character. Each of the two derived scales resulted in five factors that were empirically supported via item-reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis used in a confirmatory manner. The resultant personality factors are similar to those that make up the five-factor model or known as the Big Five personality traits. Using scores from the factors from each scale, overall group differences for gender and type of sport (i.e., team versus individual), and possible interaction effect were analyzed via multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Comparisons of specific sports, matched on gender and type of sports, were analyzed via one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Several graphical profiles were generated showing significant differences for both personality and character traits. The results provide insights into future character scale development, the relation between personality and character, and areas of focus for follow up research. |
