Athlete Attitudes on Sport Psychology Services, Confidentiality, and Service Seeking Behavior

Date of Award

5-2015

Document Type

Undergraduate Capstone Project

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Mark Aoyagi

Second Advisor

Adam ONeil

Keywords

Sport Psychology Services, Personal openness, Stigma tolerance, confidence in sport psychology, Cultural preference

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of Division I NCAA athletes with sport psychology services by analyzing stigmas, both positive and negative, associated with seeking and utilizing sport psychology services, the process of referring others to sport psychology services, and whether or not confidentiality interacts with any of these factors. The Sport Psychology Confidentiality Questionnaire (SPCQ) was created by the researchers to evaluate athlete’s opinions and knowledge of confidentiality. The Sport Psychology Attitudes- Revised (SPA-R) (Martin, 2002) was used to evaluate four categories: personal openness, stigma tolerance, confidence in sport psychology, and cultural preference. A total of 29 student-athletes from Division I universities representing a variety of sports participated in the study. Results of the study showed specific trends lending insight in to how athletes conceptualize confidentiality in conjunction with their attitudes towards sport psychology. The athletes surveyed show a high valuation of confidentiality with their sport psychologist. Results reinforced the status quo of current ethical standards for confidentiality; both contact and content confidentiality are valued. Nearly all of the athletes surveyed were either neutral towards or in favor of an opt-in method for contact confidentiality. Further survey results are discussed, with specific regard to correlations between the SPA-R and confidentiality outcomes, as well as research and practical implications.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Extent

47 pages

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