Preferred Name
Parker Leap, M.Ed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Date of Graduation
8-12-2023
Semester of Graduation
Summer
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
First Advisor
Robert J. Harmison
Second Advisor
Kelly Atwood
Third Advisor
Kelly Atwood
Abstract
Research indicates that student-athletes face unique stressors as they transition to college. Resilience programming has been shown to have mental health benefits with the general college student population; however, few studies have examined efficacy of resilience programming with college-student athletes during their transition to college. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a novel, culturally-resonant, NCAA grant-funded resilience course on scores of resilience, student athlete mental health, and sport well-being. This study also sought to assess the feasibility of this course and explore participants’ subjective experiences. A mixed methods intervention research design was utilized and included various quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate research questions. Fifteen incoming first-year NCAA Division I football student-athletes participated in the intervention. The results provided initial evidence that this course may contribute to deepened relationships and enhanced coping skills with male-identified athletes during the transition to college athletics. This study has implications for how practitioners, coaches, and athletics administration staff incorporate culturally-resonant interventions to enhance student-athlete mental health and well-being. Future studies should seek to examine the effectiveness of this course on sport-specific markers of mental health and well-being within a larger sample. The results also indicated a need to develop sport-specific measures of individual resilience as well as further explore unique factors underlying the transition to college experience for student-athletes
