National Junior College Athletics Association student athletes perception of commitment to sport and academics as defined by gender

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association athlete's dedication to their sport and academics and how they perceive that level of dedication as it relates to the opposite gender. Literature has shown that most studies have been conducted to quantify the dedication as it relates to time commitment. This study concentrated on self perception of the student athlete along with perception of the commitment of the opposite gender.;Electronic questionnaires were sent to five Midwestern junior colleges to be distributed to all identified eligible athletes in their program in the fall semester of 2008. The student athletes were prompted to go to a web page that contained the survey. The submission was done electronically at a commercially owned site. A time frame of three weeks for data collection was allowed for collection of the data.;The studies survey instrument was modified from prior survey's in nationally published studies that tested the instrument through pilot studies and expert reviews. A five point Likert scale was utilized to quantify the data. The scale ranged from (1) Very Strongly Disagree to (5) Very Strongly Agree. This scale was used to gage the respondent's characteristics about academic values, importance of sport, and commitment to sport. An eleven point time commitment scale was used to quantify time commitment to sport and perception of the opposite genders time commitment. The data received was synthesized and analyzed using the Software Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS 14.0). Frequency and percentage scores were used to calculate variables amongst the gender and sport participated in. Data analysis was conducted using t-test and Chi Square to determine levels of differences in significance.;The results showed that there was a casual level of comparison between the genders. However, no level of significance was found to conclude that there is a relationship between sport or gender with regards to perception of time commitment and value of academics.;The hypothesis ‘There is no difference between genders in the perceived value of sport’ yielded a significant difference in one of the questions. The question of “I am willing to be put in the time to be outstanding in my sport” revealed a significant difference between the genders, X2 = (3, N = 93) = 10.448, p = .015. Male respondents had a higher propensity to report a very strongly agree to this question than female respondents. The majority of both genders did agree with this statement, the variance was to the degree to which they agreed with the statement. The other question of achieving a high level of performance in sport as an important goal did not yield a significant difference.;The hypothesis ‘There is no difference in the genders in the perceived value of the balancing between sport and academics’ yielded a significant difference. The question “there is no difference between genders in viewing themselves more of an athlete than a student” also yielded a significant difference between the genders, X2(5, N = 93) = 14.679, p = .012. This suggests that the majority of males view themselves as an athlete first and a student second while the majority of females view it in the exact opposite terms.;The hypothesis ‘There is no difference between genders in the perceived value of academics’ yielded a significant difference. The question of “There is no difference between genders in the value of the grade point average” yielded a significant value of X2 (5, N = 93) = 18.60, p = .002. Of the male student athletes, 53% reported that earning a high grade point average was important while only 16.6% felt it was not an important goal. Of the female student athletes, 55.6% reported that it was an important goal while 40.7% stated that it was not an important goal for them. The other question did not show a significant difference between the genders and value of academics. This question was the only one in which the female respondents showed a deference towards academics.;The study illustrated that both genders had a respect for the commitment and dedication of the opposite gender and to their own commitment to sport and academics. The level to which the respect is illustrated varied slightly according to the chi-square analysis and t-test analysis.