Student Athlete Stereotypes

A Study of Prejudice Toward University Student-Athletes
As a student-athlete the responsibilities and expectations are much greater than a regular student, a student-athlete must work twice as hard than a regular student and manage their time properly therefore their academic performance does not negatively affect their GPA. For many years, the student-athlete stereotype has been existent in the school system, where they are portrayed as the “dumb jock” and are considered to have fewer capabilities to learn. In this study by Catherine McHugh Engstrom and William E. Sedlacek, they are attempting to find whether or not prejudice is present among regular students who have a single focus which is their academics towards student-athletes, and also identify where is prejudice most likely to occur. Furthermore, it is important that this study is completed to find a system so that student-athlete stereotypes are minimized. …show more content…
The participants of the study were 293 incoming freshmen entering a large university. For instance, the study could’ve had a completely different outcome if the sample included upperclassmen students like juniors and seniors. Moreover, the idea of including students from junior to senior year is because they’ve been in college longer and have more knowledge of how student-athletes really are. The students attending college have a better understanding of what college is really about and how student-athletes are when it comes to their school work than other students that just finished high school where stereotyping and prejudice is common such as the freshmen entering college. The use of prejudice will be less likely to be present if the students in the sample were upperclassmen college