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Abstract
The relationship of involvement in intercollegiate athletics and other types of extracurricular involvement to personal development was studied. 90 males (45 athletes and 45 non-athletes) and 88 females (44 athletes and 44 non-athletes) at a small midwestern college completed the Extracurricular Involvement Inventory to determine their level of extracurricular involvement. Students also completed the Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Inventory to assess the level of personal development on three tasks, Mature Interpersonal Relationships, Clarifying Purpose, and Academic Autonomy.
Results indicate that involvement in extracurricular activities provided a significant unique contribution to the mature interpersonal relationships task and the clarifying purpose task. As extracurricular involvement increased, so did scores on the personal development measures. Involvement in intercollegiate athletics did not provide a significant unique contribution to any of the personal development measures.
No significant interactions were found. An interesting relationship between gender and athletic status was found on the mature interpersonal relationships task that was not statistically significant but was deemed important and further study is urged. Female athletes scored higher on the mature interpersonal relationships task than male athletes while male non-athletes scored higher than female non-athletes.
When unique contribution is not considered, the results show that extracurricular involvement was a significant predictor of all the personal development measures (mature interpersonal relationships, clarifying purpose, and academic autonomy). Gender was a significant predictor of the clarifying purpose task score. Athletic status was a significant predictor of the clarifying purpose task score.
