Freshmen Student-Athletes in School and How They Cope with Stressors in Their Everyday Lives

Colleen Coon
SUNY Plattsburgh

Introduction
Stress is a common feeling that almost everyone will feel at one point or another in their life. Many incoming freshman have a hard time dealing with stress. Freshmen studentathletes can have an even harder time dealing with stress, because of the lack of time to get everything done. Studentathletes are not just stressed out about school work, there are other elements that may make a student-athlete stressed out. Some examples are parents, coaches, peers and professors. This research was conducted to find different ways to help freshmen student athletes cope with their everyday stress.

Findings
Causes of Stress From;
Self: Relievers of Stress From; Time management Self: Work load Playing basketball Proving oneself to coaches and Going to the gym teammates Lifting weights Distractions Friends Away trips for athletes sport Getting work done right away Academics Sleep/naps Parents: Eating Academics Practice Being responsible Physical Activity Peers: Parents: Different social groups Talking to them Athletically critiques Getting advice from them Social Life Peers: Coaches: Living with another athlete Academics Athletically complements Athletically - critiques Academically Professors: Hang out Work load Go out to eat Lack of sleep, because of work Someone to look up to load Coaches: Teaching styles Act like a parent Academically Help out academically Athletically - complements Professors: Complements on work

Analysis/Discussion
Family like Setting: Coaches act like parents away from home Living with teammates is helpful with getting work done Living with teammates helps with game and practice performance Have a role model to look up to. Physical Reliever: Sleeping Eating Practice and games Going to the gym; playing basketball or lifting weights Positive Feedback/Encouragement: Coaches, help to keep the athlete motivated by giving good criticism. Parents, help when athlete needs advice, or help show how proud they are of their athlete. Peers, help when the athlete is feeling down or help to keep them motivated on the field. Professors, helps by giving good criticism on class material by saying the athlete is doing a good job which helps to keep the athlete motivated..

Questions
Student-athlete vs. athlete-student, what parents, teachers and coaches really want out of you? How do students manage school and extracurricular activities in their lives? oWhat are pressures athletes put on themselves? oWhat are pressures parents, peers, coaches and professors, put on athletes? oWhat are some coping mechanisms?

Methodology
Research Design To find what stresses student-athletics and to see what they do to relieve their stresses. Ethical Considerations Consent forms Changed the names of participants to A, B, C, and D. Data Collection Randomly selected three sports and had the coaches select me a participant. Surveys, 15 to 20 minute long interviews, and follow-up questions via e-mail. Data Analysis Transcription of the interview questions Coded the surveys, interview questions and follow-up questions Trustworthiness Member checking Had to keep out personal biases of student-athletes Built trust between my participants, to help get more indepth answers to my questions.

Literature Review
During the literature review there were five common themes. The different themes of the literature review were; studies conducted, finding a balance between school and sports, if student-athletes should get special treatment, stress of being a freshman, and facts/statistics about student athletes and non-student athletes. The different literatures talked about different topics that stressed an athlete out and also gave some possible ways to help by suggesting coping mechanisms . Some of the literature also gave implied that student-athletes put their sport before school, and that coaches, parents , peers and professors all might want something different out of the athlete. In the literature there were many ideas of suggestions of how to help the athlete, but there were not many studys conducted to see what actually helps a student-athlete cope with their stress.

Implications
Literature review did not match up with my findings. There is little research on positive feedback and a family-like settings, to help with an athletes stress. Having someone to look up to, someone to talk to and someone to look out for you is very important to the athletes and this helps to relieve their stress. Physical activity is a great way to reliever stress for an athlete and more research should be done, to see if this is true for female athletes as well. More research should be conducted to see if positive criticism can help motivate a student athlete. Study was only conducted with four male participants, there needs to be more research done with more participants and with males and females.

References
Fehlen, D. (2011). Do student athletes deserve special treatment? Education portal. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/articles/Do_Student_Athletes_Deserve_Special_Treatment.html Halvorson, A.C. (2012). Just trying to keep my head above water: Division I freshman female athletes experience of their first semester. Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. Retrieved from http://trace.tennessee.edu Kreuter, N & Dieter, E. (2011). Teaching student-athletes. Inside higher ED. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/tyro/essay_on_what_faculty_members_should_know_about_teaching_a thletes Owens, T. (2012). Stress quotes. Brainy Quote. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/stress.html Partridge, D. & Franks, I. M. (1996). Analyzing and modifying coaching behaviors by means of computer aided observation. Physical Educators. 53, 8-23. http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=12&sid=955e7a35-efde-4512-98e781dd2d4217fd%40sessionmgr104&hid=110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ 528677 Schlegel, T. (2011). The stress of college athletes VS. other students. College Sports Scholarships. Retrieved from http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/2011/12/21/stress-college-athletes.htm Sharp, L. A. & Sheilley, H. K. (2008). The institution's obligations to athletes. Journal Articles; Opinion Papers, 1, 1 11. doi: 10.1002/he.306. Steadman, B. K. (2011). A short stress coping intervention in female collegiate studentathletes. Utah State University Digital Commons; Undergraduate Honors Theses. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.usu.edu White, G. A. (2008). Levels of stress and mechanisms of coping among male freshman athletes. Retrieved from http://wvuscholar.wvu.edu Wilson, G & Pritchard, M. (2005). Comparing sources of stress in college student athletes and non-athletes. Athletic insight; The online journal of sport psychology. Retrieved from http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol7Iss1/StressAthletesNonathletes.htm Xie, S. (2012). How to balance academics and athletics. College express. Retrieved from http://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/athletics/articles/balance-school-sports/how-balanceacademics-and-athletics/

Quotes
Trying to find the right balance with school and [my sport]. When can I do my work, when can I schedule my classes? Participant C. Trying to prove to my coach, that I can start, [that] I am just as good as anybody else. I am trying to get them to notice that Participant B. They will call me a couple times a week, to make sure my grades are good. They will push me to get those Bs to As, Cs to Bs, preferably As as well. Participant C. I go to the gym, thats a great stress reliever. Practice also helps too, cause of the physical activity Participant D. Both my parents are always there for me. If I had anything that was stressful, they would always be there, suggest ways to get around things, to get through things. So they definitely have been a big help Participant B. [The coach] help us out a lot. They reduce a lot of stress. For example, I got a speeding ticket, the other day, and he is taking care of it, like my parents would Participant A.

CONCLUSIONS
Parents, coaches and professors all want athletes to be students before they are an athlete. Athletes put more stress on themselves, than any other party. Athletes need support and encouragement. Athletes need to learn what stresses them out the most and then have find a coping mechanism that works best for them. There are not more questions then when starting Is there only special treatment in Division I school's athletics/ How important is family in an athletes life, to help decrease their stress. How do athletes respond and fell towards positive and negative feedback.
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