ABSTRACT

In this study, definitions found in, and outside of research, for the term, "student-athlete" were examined. Key themes within these definitions were identified and synthesized into one definition. This synthesis was conducted due to there not being an agreed upon definition for the term, "student-athlete" within the literature. This synthesized definition could be used as the standard definition for research on student-athletes, helping to reduce confusion due to varying methodology used within the field. The intent of this study was also to examine peoples' perceptions of student-athletes, and how those perceptions impacted what jobs they felt were appropriate for student-athletes. Participants completed a forced-choice card sorting task in which they evenly sorted job titles into four categories: Male Student-Athlete, Female Student-Athlete, Male Non-Athlete Student, and Female Non-Athlete Student. Participants also completed a brief written exercise describing who comes to mind when presented with the term, "student-athlete". Chi-Square and repeated measures ANOVA analyses revealed that participants did make meaningful distinctions between the groups when assigning job titles, with differences found in: Gender Traditionality, Prestige Scores, and Holland Type Scores of job titles assigned to each group. Written responses revealed that participants were largely viewing male student-athletes as Black, and female student-athletes as White, with differences in perceptions of intelligence, major choice, and character found between the groups. The information from this study may be useful to examine the role race plays in peoples' differing perceptions of student-athletes.