Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Date
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Educational Psychology & Research
Committee Chair
Richard Lightsey
Committee Member
Suzanne Lease
Committee Member
Will Adams
Committee Member
Jia Wei Zhang
Abstract
College athletics has changed dramatically since the first conception of “sports clubs” centuries ago. The effort required by student-athletes and the rewards they receive for participation have increased in tandem with the money involved in college athletics. Recent changes that allow student-athletes to be paid for use of their name, image, and likeness have further complicated relationships among effort, reward, and outcomes. In the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model, effort without adequate reward produces stress and poor health-related outcomes, and research has supported this contention with regard to outcomes such as lower well-being and poorer performance among workers. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between ERI and outcomes among student athletes. Using a sample of 187 NCAA student-athletes recruited from throughout the United States, this study used a cross-sectional design to investigate whether stress and burnout serially mediate the relationship between ERI and both well-being and athletic performance satisfaction. The relationship between ERI and perceived exploitation, as well as the differences in perceptions of exploitation among groups of student-athletes with and without name. image, and likeness (NIL) contracts, were explored. Consistent with hypotheses, relationships between ERI and well-being, and ERI and athletic performance satisfaction, were both serially mediated by stress and burnout. Additionally, ERI was positively related to perceived exploitation. Contrary to the hypothesis, there was no difference in perceived exploitation across groups of student-athletes with and without NIL contracts. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed.
Library Comment
Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.
Notes
Open Access
Recommended Citation
White, Joseph Michael, "Effort-Reward Imbalance Among Student Athletes: Relationships with Exploitation, Well-being, Performance Satisfaction, and Burnout" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3588.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/3588
Comments
Data is provided by the student.