TPC_Journal Digests_Volume_2_Issue_1

A b s t r a c t Social support and career thoughts were examined in 118 college student-athletes and 154 non-athletes from a large public university in the southeastern United States. Social support was found to have a significant relationship with career thoughts. In addition, several significant differences were found between the study’s subpopulations. Stefanie Rodriguez S ocial S upport and C areer T houghts in C ollege A thletes and N on -A thletes The relationship between social support and career thoughts was examined in college student-athletes and non- athletes. Data was collected from 118 NCAA Division I student-athletes and 154 non-student-athletes from a large public university in the southeastern United States. The five types of social support measured are as follows: acceptance-belonging is the degree to which the individual’s needs for affiliation and esteem are met through the provision of love, acceptance, respect, belonging, and shared communication; appraisal-coping assistance is the degree to which the social environment provides the individual with emotional support, hope, and coping assistance through assurances that feeling are normal, positive reinterpretations of the situation and future, and information on coping skills during times of stress; behavior- cognitive guidance is the degree to which the social environment meets the individual’s needs for direct and modeled feedback about appropriate behaviors and thoughts; tangible assistance-material aid is the degree to which instrumental needs for money, goods, and services are met by the social environment; and modeling is the information on how others feel, handle situations, and think. Although in the total sample no significant unique relationships were found between the five types of social support and career thoughts, overall social support was TPC Digest ...social support was found to have a significant relationship with career thoughts. TPC Journal Volume 2 Issue 1