Promoting Academic Success for High-Risk Competitive Athletes Using Attributional Retraining

• In Event: Contemporary Perspectives on Student-Athletes and Academic Success

Abstract

Students transitioning to university often face various obstacles that undermine perceived academic control (PAC) and impede achievement striving (Perry et al., 2014). Additionally, many involved in competitive sports must navigate other unique pressures (McNamara & Collins, 2010) and are at a greater risk of school drop-out (Johnson et al., 2013). Our 8-month quasi-experimental, randomized treatment study examined the effects of attributional retraining (AR) on competitive athletes (n = 152) varying in PAC (+/- 1 SD). Simple slope analyses revealed AR (vs. no-AR) benefitted low-PAC athletes by promoting higher test scores, 2-week, and 3-month post-treatment (b =11.68, p =.007; b =7.91, p =.006, respectively) and perceived success (b =.84, p =.038). For non-athletes, AR promoted higher 2-week post-treatment test scores only.

Authors

• Patti C. Parker, University of Manitoba

• Raymond P. Perry, University of Manitoba

• Jeremy M. Hamm, University of Manitoba

• Judy Chipperfield, University of Manitoba

• Steve Hladkyj, University of Manitoba

• Virginia Man Chung Tze, University of Alberta