High school and college athletes' attitudes toward sport psychology consulting

The purpose of the present study was to explore attitudes about sport psychology consulting of high school and college athletes living in the United States. The Sport Psychology Attitudes Revised form (SPA-R; Martin, Kellmann, Lavallee, & Page, 2002) was administered to 362 high school and 431 college athletes. A 2 ( Gender) x 2 ( Age Group: High School and College) x 2 ( Type of Sport: Physical Contact and Physical Non-contact) MANCOVA was conducted with past sport psychology consulting experience as a covariate and attitudes about sport psychology as dependent variables. Follow-up univariate and discriminant function analyses were then performed to identify the attitudes that maximized differences related to gender, age group and type of sport. Results revealed that male athletes, younger athletes and athletes who have been socialized in sports that involve physical contact may have a stigma toward seeking sport psychology consulting. Sport psychology consultants must be sensitive to how personal characteristics, experience and attitudes influence help-seeking to improve the services they offer.