on-cisgender identity, age of awareness, age of social transition, primary caregiver acceptance, secondary caregiver acceptance, and mental health. Hypotheses were partially supported for age of social transition with mental health, parental acceptance with mental health, and awareness-transition gap with parental acceptance. This study investigated under studied concepts of social transition and parental acceptance that appear to have an effect on the mental health of transgender adults.
Although it is generally acknowledged that a college degree is foundational to achieving success in the 21st century, only 19.5% of those entering public community colleges graduate with an associate's degree within three years (NCES, 2014). Many challenges have impeded students including being underprepared to transition from high school to college, being a first-generation college student, and having limited support networks.
The purpose of this action research project was to implement a college-going readiness program designed to increase the social and personal readiness of high school students making the transition from high school to college. The College Transition Project, the intervention, offered a series of face-to-face class sessions for students and online supplemental materials for students and parents (a) guiding and assisting students in navigating the college system, (b) improving social readiness, and (c) increasing goal setting, time management, communication, and stress management. The curriculum was designed to include key topics including potential pitfalls or challenges common to previously unsuccessful college students. Goal orientation, co-regulation, and self-regulation theories provided frameworks supporting the intervention. Over a five-week period, an instructor taught students who received information on these topics; while students and parents could review online resources at any time.
A concurrent mixed methods research design was employed and data included pre- and post-intervention surveys, field notes, and post-intervention interviews. Results indicated some modest outcomes were attained. Quantitative results indicated no changes in various study measures. By comparison, qualitative data showed students: recognized the usefulness of co-regulation as it related to college preparedness, realized self-regulation efforts would aid their transition to college, and developed some college navigation skills that would facilitate transition to college. Most students acknowledged the need to identify goals, engage in self-regulation, and practice self-efficacy as critical components for students transitioning from high school to college. The discussion explained the outcomes in terms of the theoretical frameworks. Implications focused on additional ways to develop self-efficacy and employ co-regulated activities and relationship building to aid in developing motivation and to nurture emerging identities in students who were transitioning from high school to college.
The main scope of this study was to analyze the impact support and identity have on the collegiate athletic career transition process. While student-athletes undergo a variety of transitions, this study focused on the career transition out of collegiate athletics regardless of their reason for leaving or their next steps. The motivation for conducting this research is to take the challenges and recommendations to the next steps and reform the common practice of career transition and provide assistance to athletes facing adversity in this position. A study on 32 voluntary student-athletes in different phases of the transition process ranging from current student-athletes to graduated student-athletes years detached from their sport was conducted via electronic questionnaire. Questions about demographics and their personal experiences relating to identity, support, and transition as a whole were asked regarding their time as student-athletes through their transition (if applicable). Through analyzing the responses and previous literature, it is evident that support is necessary from the early stages as a student-athlete through their transition out of the sport to minimize the negative impact. It is also apparent that one's athletic identity is established early on in their career and is difficult to dissociate from to rediscover a personal identity not connected to athletic performance. Knowing what we do now, there are limitations in the findings such as within the demographics, questionnaire, and clarity. This would be beneficial to research and study further to optimize a solution to assist in the athletic career transition process and alleviate additional barriers athletes face when no longer having their sport.
This project investigates the adjustment to college life that first-year athletes must face. Through personal essay, a comprehensive survey of current college athletes at Arizona State University, and one-on-one interviews with self-selected, current athletes, the project presents the collection of challenges confronted and best practices adopted (and also missteps to be learned from) along the way in a college athlete’s first year and transition from high school to college. By looking systematically, this project brings awareness to the common stressors that athletes face and shares coping mechanisms in which these stressors can be overcome. This project also brings the survey statistics to life with individual stories, including both the author’s personal essay and interviews with individual athletes. While the first purpose of this thesis is to make clear to athletes struggling with this transition from high school to college sports that their experience is commonplace and expected, the second purpose is to set these athletes up for success: providing them with a one-stop shop of resources to assist athletes and any of their needs. The project analyzes athletes’ current use of resources and brings together the available resources for athletes into a single catalogue. This “guidebook” blends previous research on the adjustment to college for collegiate athletes, a new study analyzing the specific resource usage of the current Sun Devil athletes, and personal testimony. What this project revealed was that not only are first-year athletes experiencing common stressors and underutilizing resources available to them, so too are athletes in the second, third, and fourth years. All athletes would benefit from increasing awareness of the challenges and stressors often experienced by athletes and increased accessing of resources available to athletes that continue to be underutilized.