The Impact of Masculine Attitudes on Sex and Relationships in College Athletes

Background and Purpose: Research supports a connection between conformity to masculine traits in the sports culture and sexual aggression.  This study seeks to understand the impact of attitudes on dominance, violence, and success and winning of college athletes on their feelings regarding sex and relationships.  It is hypothesized that athletes who have a larger sense of dominance are more likely to have less appreciation for sex and relationships; athletes who have a higher acceptability of violence are more likely to have less appreciation toward sex and relationships; athletes who have greater attitudes toward success and winning are more likely to have less appreciation for sex and relationships; and athletes who have higher feelings toward dominance, violence, as well as success and winning will have less appreciation toward sex and relationships even while being controlled for race, ethnicity, gender, year in school, and type of sports participation.

Methods: This study uses a secondary data set from the Athletic Involvement Study of Students in a Northeastern University in the United States.  Through a cross sectional survey design, 795 undergraduate students completed an anonymous questionnaire.  Several items from the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI) scale were used to measure masculine traits such as attitudes on dominance, violence, as well as success and winning among students who participate in sports.  Hierarchical multiple regression was performed in SPSS to assess the impact of dominance, violence, and success and winning on feelings on sex and relationships while controlling for ethnicity, race, gender, year in school, and type of sport.

Results: Ethnicity, race, gender, year in school, and type of sport explained 13% of the variance on feelings of sex and relationships in Model 1.  After entry of feelings on dominance, violence, and success and winning in Model 2, the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 19%, F(8, 728) = 21.30, p<.001. The five control variables (ethnicity, race, gender, year in school, type of sport) explained an additional 5.7% of the variance in sex and relationships, R squared change =.057, F change (3, 728) = 16.95, p<.001.  Four measures were statistically significant, with dominance (beta=-.09, p<.016), violence (beta=-.24, p<.001), success and winning (beta=.09, p<.017), and gender (beta=.29, p<.000).  

Conclusions and Implications: Results indicate that college athletes with greater masculine attitudes such as dominance and violence devalue sex and relationships.  Meanwhile college athletes with higher attitudes on success and winning had greater appreciation for sex and relationships.  Males were also more likely to have higher acceptance of dominance, violence, and success and winning than females.  More research needs to be conducted on the attitudes and behaviors of college athletes as it relates to masculine traits and the possibility of sexual violence.  These findings also raise the need to increase social workers in college sports.  Social workers can work with college athletes to increase their appreciation for sex and relationships by capitalizing on success and winning attitudes while decreasing violence and dominance values through sexual assault prevention.