“I’m a Baller”: Athletic Identity Foreclosure among African-American Former Student-Athletes

The Effect of Athletic Identity and Locus of Control on the Stress Perceptions of Community College Student-Athletes

“…Researchers also found that student-athletes who endorsed a strong athletic identity often neglected the academic and social roles and responsibilities associated with their collegiate experience. This is a situation that becomes particularly stress-inducing when the student-athlete faces an injury or fails to perform at a high level and the cheering and admiration subside (Beamon, 2012;Sturm, Feltz, Gilson, 2011).…”

The Adapted Italian Version of the Baller Identity Measurement Scale to Evaluate the Student-Athletes’ Identity in Relation to Gender, Age, Type of Sport, and Competition Level

“…In particular, the study reported that student-athletes’ athletic and academic identities differ in relation to geography, cultural context, university attitudes toward sport/academic progresses, competition level (i.e., Division I FBS football compared with Division III women’s basketball), and media coverage. Conversely, Beamon [24] qualitatively investigated the athletic identity of African-American male former Division I student-athletes, highlighting that they are mainly characterized by both a self-identity (i.e., the degree to which an individual identifies with the athlete role) and a social identity (i.e., athletic identity related to the point of view of others), or by only self-identity [24]. To note, the latter two studies seem to provide a divergent consideration of the “baller”.…”

The Embodied Experience of a Football Championship Subdivision Student-Athlete

“…Most of the literature to date focuses on Division I football student-athletes encompassing both FCS and FBS or researching FBS institutions specifically. In contrast to the minority literature in collegiate football that focuses specifically on African American student-athletes (i.e., Beamon, 2012;Henry & Closson, 2012;Park et al, 2010), this study also sheds light on a Cuban or Hispanic football student-athlete's experience. Predicted growth of the Hispanic population in higher education is 42% by the year 2021 (Hussar & Bailey, 2013).…”

“…The field has yet to explore Cuban or Hispanic football student-athletes and their experiences as other minority groups in the Football Bowl Subdivision or the Football Championship Subdivision. Beamon (2012) noted that race plays a role in "career maturity, sport socialization, sports career aspirations, and student-athlete academic success, with African-Americans having a more difficult experience than whites" (p. 205). Though Beamon (2012) focused implicitly on an African American population, we cannot assume the implications of the African American minority group can be generalized to other minority groups in collegiate athletics.…”