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MARCH 14, 2025 | composed by STEVE ULRICH

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FEATURE
Exploring Contributors and Barriers to Academic and Athletic Success: Results From a Peer-Reviewed Study

by Steve Dittmore, D3Lacrosse.net

This spring wraps up my 23rd year in higher education, as a professor of sport management and, now, an academic dean. Staying current on recently released academic literature is sometimes a challenge given my work schedule. However, a recent peer-reviewed article published this month in the Journal of Athlete Development and Experience caught my attention. Authored by researchers from California State University, Long Beach, the article explores the “dual demands of college student-athletes.”

Division III’s published priorities all revolve around a theme of a “well-rounded collegiate experience”; one that balances academics and athletics. As such, this study’s findings were of interest to me. The authors gathered responses from 176 student-athletes across nine institutions, representing 18 different sports. The majority of respondents came from a Division I institution (67%), were freshmen (38%), and participated in baseball (29%), water polo (14%), and volleyball (11%). While 75% confirmed they were in a desired major, 21% indicated they would change their major if they were not playing a sport. Sixty-one percent of participants reported their career aspirations did not involve playing sports professionally. 

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When asked what factors contribute to their success in school, five themes emerged. Two were intrinsic contributors (study effort/skills, personal growth) and three were extrinsic contributors (social support, relationship with sports, resources/tools/rewards). Not surprisingly, more than half of the participants identified “study effort/skills” as the most significant contributor to academic success. 

A similar question about barriers to academic success revealed four themes, again divided into intrinsic barriers (underdeveloped skills) and extrinsic barriers (balance/other obligations, athletic conflicts, class difficulty). “Balance/other obligations,” with 31.3% of the responses, included school, sports, and social obligations (including partying/having fun), but also commuting, working, and cooking. A close second was “underdeveloped skills,” with 25.1% of responses. This included mental health obstacles such as ADHD and depression.

Regarding contributors and barriers to athletic success, the research found support for five contributor themes: determination and mindset (intrinsic), love for sport (intrinsic), social support (extrinsic), time (extrinsic), and physical ability (extrinsic). Nearly half of the participants cited “determination and mindset” as the most critical contributor to athletic success.

As for barriers to athletic success, responses again fell into intrinsic (mental barriers, time management/balance) and extrinsic (injury/physical limitations, school, social conflicts/pressure, lack of sport resources) themes. “Mental barriers” and “injury/physical limitations” accounted for more than half of the responses around barriers to athletic success.

The researchers grounded their study in Self-Determination Theory and found athletes cited more intrinsic factors as contributors to athletic success, consistent with previous literature. This is likely due to the perceived sense of competence in sport abilities that accompanies a collegiate student-athlete. 

A key finding from the study was that “Athletes reported their relationship with their sport was a contributor to academic success, implying that sport participation can enhance adjusting to college-level learning” (p. 32). However, participants also reported school as a barrier to athletic success. “This shows that athletes may acknowledge the benefits of sport participation on academic outcomes, but they do not feel there is a reciprocal relationship with school benefiting athletic outcomes” (p. 32-33).

An area the authors did not emphasize in their discussion was the importance of an individual student-athlete’s mental health. “Underdeveloped skills” was identified as an intrinsic barrier to academic success while “mental barriers” was identified as an intrinsic barrier to athletic success. However, “determination and mind set” accounted for nearly half of responses related to contribution to athletic success. 

To me, this study illustrates the importance of dedicating campus resources to student-athlete mental health resources, as it can help athletes overcome the barriers to their academic and athletic success, while enhancing the contributions to athletic success.

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