ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: TREATMENT ACCEPTABILITY OF NCAA DIVISION I STUDENT - ATHLETES: FACTORS AFFECTING ATHLETES' ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORT PSYCHOLOGY CONSULTANTS

Title of Thesis: TREATMENT ACCEPTABILITY OF NCAA DIVISION I STUDENT ATHLETES: FACTORS AFFECTING ATHLETES' ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORT PSYCHOLOGY CONSULTANTS Michael Hamberger, Master of Arts, Department of Kinesiology, 2004 Thesis directed by: Dr. Seppo Iso-Ahola (advisor) Dr. Ang Chen Dr. Brad Hatfield Consultations with sport psychologists can be a result of a coach implementing a sport psychology intervention for an athlete or team, or athletes personally choosing to utilize such services. The present study attempted to identify factors that could best predict an athlete’s attitudes toward sport psychology consultants (SPCs). It was reasoned, following the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1988), that positive attitudes toward SPCs would create more of an incentive for an athlete to utilize the services of a sport psychologist. Student-athletes (N = 204) from a large university participated in the study. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that gender, sport type, and knowledge about sport psychology were the significant predictors of athletes’ attitudes. Implications for the applied field of sport psychology are made, specifically, that SPCs should discover ways to increase treatment acceptability in male and team-sport athletes, as well as increase athletes’ knowledge about the benefits and services of sport psychologists. TREATMENT ACCEPTABILITY OF NCAA DIVISION I STUDENT -ATHLETES: FACTORS AFFECTING ATHLETES' ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORT PSYCHOLOGY CONSULTANTS by Michael Hamberger Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2004