Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2020
Abstract
Issues related to social justice and activism have always permeated sports, but recently, due to the high profile cases of several elite-level athletes (i.e., Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe), these issues have become much more prominent in the contemporary sporting climate. Even though these highly visible actions are publicized in today’s media environment, little is known about how collegiate student-athletes perceive engaging in social justice activism. Therefore, the current study surveyed 2,092 collegiate student-athletes on their attitudes toward activism engagement using a theory of planned behavior framework with particular attention paid to how gender and ethnicity/race influenced these relationships. A series of MANOVAs indicated that female student-athletes, in relation to male student athletes, and student-athletes of color, in comparison to White student-athletes, held higher perceptions on most of the subscales related to activism. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms were significant predictors of athletes’ intention to engage in activism. In addition, interactions of the three predictors with race and gender influenced the final regression model indicating the strength of each predictor was impacted by athlete race and gender. Future research directions and implications for programming in relation to study findings are discussed.
Copyright Statement
This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. © 2020, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International license. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at Psychology of Sport and Exercise, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101766
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Information
Mac Intosh, Andrew; Martin, Eric M.; and Kluch, Yannick. (2020). "To Act or Not to Act?: Student-Athlete Perceptions of Social Justice Activism". Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 51, 101766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101766