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The intersection of education and sport among Ukrainian university athletes: the role of identity and passion for sport in athletic and academic motivation

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of student-athlete identity (academic, athletic) and passion for sport (harmonious, obsessive) in academic and athletic motivation (persistence, effort, value) among Ukrainian university student-athletes in the physical education department (N = 159). Results showed that athletic motivation was predicted positively by athletic identity and harmonious passion for sport. Academic motivation was predicted positively by academic identity. Several sport-to-school spillover effects were also found for academic motivation. Athletic identity enhanced the positive relationship between academic identity and academic motivation; whereas academic identity “protected” against the negative consequence of athletic identity on academic motivation. Results also showed that a strong passion for sport, regardless of its type (harmonious, obsessive), can be associated negatively with academic motivation for student-athletes with a strong athletic identity. Taken together, findings highlight that athletic identity does not always have negative consequence for the academic motivation of university student-athletes.

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The data that has been used are not available due to the stipulations by the ethical review boards.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge Dr. Olena Voiedilova from the Department of Physical Education, T. H. Shevchenko National University “Chernihiv Collehium” for her support in collecting the data and college athletes who participated in this study.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, California State University, Fresno, 5005 N. Maple Ave., M/S ED 2, Fresno, CA, 93740, USA

    Mariya A. Yukhymenko-Lescroart

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  1. Mariya A. Yukhymenko-Lescroart
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Contributions

Mariya Yukhymenko-Lescroart: Study conceptualization; Data curation; Methodology; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Writing – original draft; Writing—review & editing; Visualization; Project administration.

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Correspondence to Mariya A. Yukhymenko-Lescroart.

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Yukhymenko-Lescroart, M.A. The intersection of education and sport among Ukrainian university athletes: the role of identity and passion for sport in athletic and academic motivation. Curr Psychol 43, 15408–15421 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05494-0

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