Thursday, April 3, 2014: 2:15 PM
125–126 (Convention Center)
Gi-Yong Koo, Troy University, Troy, AL and Junmo Sung, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Background/Purpose: Emotional attachment toward a team may be an important factor in assisting college students’ adjustment while team identification has been recognized as a psychological connection with a specific sport team, coach, or athlete (Koo & Hardin, 2008; Trail, Anderson, & Fink, 2000; Wann & Pierce, 2005). Tajfel (1981) revealed that an individual’s perceived affiliation with a favorite group reflects his or her increased personal self-worth. Accordingly, a sense of belonging to the preferred group plays a major role in group affiliation for an individual (Arndt, Greenberg, Schimel, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 2002). In higher education, students highly identified with a team are likely to share a personal self-concept with larger groups (Wann, 2000) because team identification enables them to interact with associated group members. As a result, students highly identified with a certain team achieve more powerful emotions of self-worth and positive effects on personal sense of who they are (Brandscombe & Wann,1991). However, little research was conducted to learn whether team identification may trigger or block psychological well-being and school adjustment probably resulting in academic achievement. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to examine the model encompassing the direct and indirect effects of team identification on personal self-esteem and school adjustment, including social and emotional adjustment.
Method: Data were collected via an online survey with a convenience sample of 251 undergraduate students from a major university in the southeastern region of the United States.
Analysis/Results: An examination of construct validity using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported that the further use of the final measurement model as part of a Structure Equation Model (SEM) hypothesizing causal links among latent variables: χ 2 (126) = 224.743, p < .001, SRMR = .05, RMSEA = .056, CFI = .964. Decomposition of effects derived from the SEM indicated that students highly identified with a certain team increased their self-worth (t = 5.015, p < .01) which in turn, positively led to their social (t = 3.917, p < .01) and emotional (t = 6.310, p < .01) adjustment. The SEM explained approximately 14% of the variance in personal self-esteem, 58% of the variance in social adjustment, and 52% of the variance in emotional adjustment.
Conclusions: By understanding team identification as one of the academic facilitators associated with students’ psychological well-being, administrators in both the academic and athletic areas can work to develop the most appropriate environment for students to enhance their social and emotional adjustment.
