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Leaving home or transitioning to another environment is a part of every individual’s personal growth and is often considered to be a significant developmental milestone. The distress that individuals experience with this transition has been identified as homesickness. Elite sporting institutions, such as the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), have recognized that problems associated with homesickness appear to be a predominant cause of poor well-being and dropout among athletes living in a national sports institute. This study aimed to investigate if individual personality traits and coping styles could predict levels of homesickness in these athletes. Neuroticism, self-esteem, and mental escape were significant predictors of homesickness. These results suggest that athletes who are vulnerable to homesickness can be identified before the commencement of their sporting scholarships so they can be treated accordingly.

We introduce a two-perception probabilistic concept of adaptation (TPPCA), which accounts for fast and slow adaptation processes. The outcome of both processes depends on the perceptual difference (termed herein a quantum) of how an individual perceives his or her abilities, skills, and capacities (β_v) to interact, cope, and perform a given task (δ_i). Thus, the adaptation process is determined by (β_v – δ_i). Fast adaptation processes target aspects that require immediate responses while slow adaptation processes involve ongoing adaptation to long-term demands. We introduce the TPPCA in several domains of inquiry, which rely on fast adaptation processes (perceptual–cognitive–action coupling, performance routines, psychological crisis, reversal states), slow adaptation processes (i.e., career aspirations, burnout), and processes that can be either fast or slow (i.e., flow, affect and mood changes, emotion regulation).

This study examined whether students engaged in university sport have different drinking outcome expectancies and normative beliefs than students who are not engaged in university sport. A cross-sectional survey of university students in England in 2008–2009 was undertaken. A questionnaire battery, including the Drinking Expectancies Questionnaire (DEQ) and a measure of normative beliefs, was completed by 770 students from seven universities across England. Responses from 638 students who were not abstaining from alcohol were analyzed. Students engaged in university sport have significantly higher drinking expectancies of assertion compared with students not engaged in university sport. Moreover, students engaged in university sport consistently report higher personal alcohol consumption and higher perceptions of consumption in those around them than students not engaged in university sport. Both assertion and the perception that students around them drink heavily provide only a partial explanation for why students engaged in university sport drink more than those not engaged in university sport. Further research is required to identify the reasons for heavy drinking among students involved in university sport in England.

This study examined the effects of a university recreation center intervention aimed at increasing members’ perceptions of a caring, task-involving climate. In addition, members’ perceptions of staff behaviors and their own behaviors were measured. College students (N = 282) completed questionnaires before and after an intervention designed to increase perceptions of a caring, task-involving climate. Results revealed the intervention did increase members’ perceptions of the caring, task-involving climate while reducing perceptions of the ego-involving climate. Members’ perceptions of the staff and their own positive behaviors also increased. The staff’s behaviors predicted members’ perceptions of the three types of climates; moreover, members’ perceptions of the ego-involving climate negatively predicted their caring, task-involving behaviors. The study suggests that members’ perceptions of the climate can be positively influenced through minimal training with recreation center staff and that the behaviors in which the staff engage are an antecedent to members’ perceptions of the motivational climate.

This study explored the extent to which athletic identity, belief of financial sustainability through participation at the professional level, scholarship status, and career decision-making self-efficacy predicted career maturity in college athletes. In addition, whether the relationship between athletic identity and career maturity differed depending upon scholarship status, belief of sustaining oneself financially as a professional athlete, and career decision-making self-efficacy was explored. Participants were 221 student-athletes from a large southeastern university. Participants provided demographic information and completed the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale—Short Form, and Career Decision Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that athletic identity was inversely related to career maturity. In addition, career decision-making self-efficacy was related to career maturity, with high career decision-making self-efficacy associated with higher career maturity. Future research is needed to further explore psychological variables that may explain the relationship between athletic identity and career maturity.

Self-concept theory was used as a theoretical basis to investigate the utility of social norms alcohol prevention programs for college athletes. The predictive relationship among alcohol use and athletic identity, competitiveness, drinking game participation, and level of sport participation was investigated. Drinking game participation was found to be a significant predictor of total weekly alcohol use above and beyond the other predictors. In addition, organized recreational sport participation was a significant predictor of total binge-drinking episodes. It was demonstrated that individuals not currently participating in sports with an athletic identity in the same range as current athletes consumed alcohol at similar rates to current athletes, thus supporting athletic identity as an alternative way of classifying athlete status when studying alcohol consumption patterns. These results highlight the importance of drinking game participation in the alcohol use of college athletes and the validity of applying self-concept theory to alcohol prevention programs.