A Conceptual Model of Student-Athletes’ Time Demands

Time demands of student-athletes continue to rise. Because of their roles as students and athletes in higher education institution, student-athletes are considered unique. Their academic and athletic tasks are hardly similar, and thus, compete for student-athletes’ time and attention. These competing roles transcend to their adoption of identities and eventually behavioral manifestations. When a conflict between socially-situated identities exists individuals cognitively resolved the conflict by favoring one over the others to define oneself in the most prominent identity. In this context, time demands on academics and athletics are consequences of the student-athlete’s assumed identity, which is largely formed by the social expectancies and self-efficacy. Time demands will produce academic and athletic outcomes, which will also emphasize and validate the saliency of the chosen identity. The purpose of this paper is to offer a model to explain the antecedents and outcomes of time demands made on athletics and academics by college athletes. This article incorporates the relevant features of theories of expectancy, self-efficacy, role conflict, and social identity, particularly as antecedents, in understanding student-athlete time demands and its academic and athletic outcomes.