Project S.A.I.D.: Student-Athlete Identity Development

Abstract

The collegiate level student-athletes are subjected to a world that is different than other adolescents beginning their university experience. These individuals embark on their college campuses with more than freshman level English and dorm selection as their greatest sources of stress. On the contrary this level of athletics and education is the genesis for many into the world of professional athletics. These young individuals are ushered into a world where balancing the many perils, pitfalls and pleasantries of a college campus are events that could be construed as the makings of a fulltime job...their sport of choice. The irony of this world is that only a tiny percentage of the student-athletes will make an actual career out of their particular sport, however the training and preparation is the same for all. To top it off, each and every one of the student athletes believes they will be the one to achieve professional status with their talent. American college communities more often than not promote the fact that they are places for adolescents to grow and explore themselves in various ways. Erik Erikson (1982) has determined that the Identity vs. Identity Confusion crisis takes place at this very time and if not successfully resolved one will develop in a psychosocial manner that can impact negatively throughout the rest of one's life. The impasse that the student athlete is faced with is that so much is determined by their performance in their sport rather than their performance as an individual away from their sport. I will focus on the identity development of male and female adolescent collegiate student-athletes and how these two very important components, gender identity and social group identity, interplay in the development of some adolescents and create its own type of identity development completely, Student-Athlete Identity Development (S.A.I.D.) It will be argued that student-athletes, particularly males, have embarked upon this time of exploration in their lives and begin with a foreclosed sense of identity and within months they start to alter their view of self as well as their place within the athletic world.