A comparative study of the study skills, self-concept, academic achievement and adjustment to college of freshmen intercollegiate athletes and non-athletes

This study examined the relationship between SAT scores, self-concept, study habits and attitudes, and college adjustment for student-athletes and non-athletes. Much has been written concerning the academic inferiority of student-athletes but little scholarly research has been conducted in the field. Students from a large midwestern research institution participated in the study by completing the instruments early in the fall and late in the spring semester of their freshman year. Fall and spring GPA\u27s of student-athletes were found to correlate highly with pre-college admission test scores, study habits and attitudes, global self-concept, and with academic and goal attainment subscales on a college adjustment inventory. For non-athletes significant correlations were found only for Spring GPA and study habits and attitudes as well as the academic and goal attainment subscales of the adjustment inventory. The combination of independent variables studied did little to improve prediction of either academic achievement or adjustment to college. Analysis of variance revealed few total differences between the two populations across all of the various independent variables utilized in this research