Abstract:
Division I, student athletes have incredibly busy schedules with practice, school, games, and
more. Trying to manage all of these activities can be difficult and can pose a problem for the
most important area in an athlete’s life: sleep. Sleep is crucial for recovery and functioning. The
Reasoned Action Model (RAM) is the most recent technique for predicting behavior. It has been
used for predicting intention based on attitude, perceived normative pressure, and perceived
behavioral control (PBC). The purpose of this study was to examine sleep behaviors of college
athletes and to compare the sleep behaviors with those who are not college athletes using the
measures of attitude, perceived normative pressure, PBC, and behavior intention in the RAM.
This study compared the results of college student athletes to the traditional college students used
in the Tagler, Stanko, and Forbey study (2017). This study surveyed the student athlete
population from a university with Division I athletics. The results of this study supported the
RAM, as intention was predicted based on variables of attitude, perceived normative pressure,
and PBC according to a bivariate correlation. This study also found that, unlike traditional
college students, student athletes’ PBC was not a significant predictor after accounting for the
influence of attitude and perceived normative pressure. Further research is needed to discover
why this occurred.
