ATHLETIC STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AND THE SENSE OF BELONGING THAT LEADS TO HIGHER GRADUATION RATES

Abstract

Although there is a growing body of research on retention of higher education students, there is a constant need for more because of ever-changing variables that affect attrition. With dynamic retention issues changing, new empirical research such as this study can be used to keep up with higher education attrition. The specific purpose of this study is to investigate how factors of belongingness included with being a scholarly Division I athlete can lead to higher graduation rates compared to non-athletes. The positive descriptive analysis of graduation success for student athletes will be measured by using retrospective public survey and interview results comparing them to students that do not participate in scholarly sports. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used in this study to formulate a Grounded Convergent Mixed Methods analysis study that leads to useful empirical data. It was found that the graduation rates were overall equal despite the scholarly athletes engaging in many characteristics of belongingness. However, there are certain subgroups of student athletes found to have higher graduation rates than those not involved. One example is the fact that female athletes are more likely to graduate than females included in the general student body, particularly reflected by the characteristics of well-being. While minority athletes also seem mor likely to graduate than other minority students not involved.