Could
attending more sporting events at their university help a student to acclimate
to college life, and ultimately stay to earn a degree? Those
are the questions Evan Davis, of Apollo, is trying to answer with his master’s
degree theses project, “Effects of Team Identification on Social and Emotional
Adjustment at a Division II University,” which he presented on April 5 at the
IUP Graduate Scholars Forum at the Hadley Union Building.
“How
do students become adjusted?” Davis asked. “One of the ways can be in college
athletics. At big universities, some kids go there so they can be a part of
something. They want to be something bigger than themselves. … Athletics can create a sense of belonging for students. I
want to find out if, at a Division II school, that’s the same.”
Davis’ presentation was one of the more
than 120 during the seventh annual one-day event, which allows IUP graduate
students to present original research in a wide array of subjects.
Additionally, there were nearly 100 graduate students participating in the
poster presentation session.
The 12th-annual undergraduate forum was held April 4, also at
the HUB. Roughly 300 students are
involved in the two programs, held as part of Research Appreciation Week at
IUP.
Davis said he will use previous studies done at Division I
schools to see if the same results correlate at a Division II school, which IUP
is.
“Division I programs will
be bigger, and they draw more attention,” Davis said. “Even though Division
II programs are not as popular socially, they can help with keeping the
students in school.”
Davis,
who is working under the tutelage of faculty member Richard Hsiao, is a
first-year graduate student in the Sport Management
program.
His
project will take him throughout the 2017-18 school year, and he plans to poll roughly
200 IUP students to see if their experiences following athletics—or not
following them in some cases—had any impact on their ability to succeed in
college.
Davis
said some other studies have shown that some students who became fans of their
own college teams felt an increase in self-esteem and found a stronger sense of
community than those who don’t. His hypothesis for this project is to prove
that statement to be correct.
“People
join groups because it gives them a sense of belonging to something greater
than they are,” he said, “and it helps them to adjust better.”
Davis earned his bachelor’s
degree in sport administration from IUP
in December 2016.