This project was undertaken to determine the relationship between athletic ability and certain personality attributes and academic achievement. From lists of interscholastic teams in each of 7 junior high schools approximately 15 athletes were chosen; a similar number of non-athletes were chosen from the same schools. Since a satisfactory instrument was not available for determining the attitude toward physical education of boys of chis age group, a scale was developed for scoring by the Likert method. This scale was then administered to the 161 boys as was the California Personaliry Inventory from which the 4 least reliable measures were deleted. At the end of the academic year the students' grades in English, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, and Physical Education were obtained from the Permanent Record Cards in their resoective schools. The responses of the athletes and non-athletes on the attitude scale were compared by applying the t test to the differences between the means. As might be expected the athletes were much more favourable toward physical education than were the non-athletes ( M + SD = 717.94 -1 45.41 vs 670.33 +62.71 for grade 9; 731.00 + 34.79 vs 658.39 -C 71.76 for grade 10; t s = 3.75, 5.81). Multivariate analysis of variance on responses to the California Psychological Inventory indicated few pronounced personality differences between athletes and non-athletes. However, sociability ( M + SD = 21.92 2 4.91 vs 18.84 f 5.12 for grade 9; 23.95 & 4.51 vs 20.08 -t5.10 for grade 1 0 ) and self-acceptance ( M f S D = 19.72 f 3.68 vs 18.05 2 3.37 for grade 9; 20.98 -13.58 vs 18.34 & 4.31 for grade 1 0 ) were more generally present in athletes than in non-athletes while the characteristic described as via conformance was stronger in athletes than non-athletes in the ninth grade only. In the tenth grade non-athletes demonstrated a significantly higher self-control ( M f SD = 21.41 2 7.04 vs 26.18 f 7.79; t = -2.87) and greater femininity (16.07 2 2.95 vs 17.74 f 3.33) than athletes. A chi-square analysis of the academic grades of athletes and non-athletes showed that rhe only significant difference between the two groups was in Physical Education in which athletes had higher grades ( x 2 = 17.40, dJ = 4 ) . While some studies comparing athletes and non-athletes have shown personality differences between such groups, data on academic achievement have been inconsistent. In the present study pronounced differences were not found between athletes and nonathletes in attitudes, personality, and academic achievement. Non-existence of specific personality and academic traits as typical of athletes seems indicated by inconsistencies in findings over studies.
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Fred L. Martens (1974) studied this question.