Well-Being and Performance in Dual Careers: The Role of Academic and Athletic Identities

This paper presents a complementary multimethod approach to investigate the academic and athletic identities of Australian student-athletes. In Study 1, the authors explored the academic and athletic identities of 8 student-athletes using semistructured interviews. Results are congruent with the model of multiple dimensions of identity and indicate that student-athletes develop both academic and athletic identities. The corresponding fulfillment of self-determined needs in both academic and athletic identities was deemed beneficial to student-athletes’ well-being. The authors used a quantitative approach (N = 86) in Study 2 and found that academic identity was positively associated with student-athletes’ academic performance and life satisfaction. Differences in athletic identity were found based on the student-athletes’ sport-competition levels. No significant associations were found between the student-athletes’ academic and athletic identities.