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COPYRIGHT 2007 University of South Alabama
Four million people inquired about tickets for the 1998 World Cup in the first hour after they went on sale (McCallum & O'Brien, 1988b). That same year, three television networks collectively paid 17.6 billion dollars for the right to broadcast National Football League games for the next several years (McCallum & O'Brien, 1998a). The most popular sport-related internet sites are accessed more than 100 million times per month (Alvarez, 1997; Grover 1998). Clearly, we are a nation--if not a world--of sports fans. Indeed, decades of empirical research confirm the pervasive influence of sports in the lives of Americans (see Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001, for a review). A study commissioned by the Miller Brewing Company (1983), for example, found that 69% of Americans talk about, read about, or watch sports every day, and that 89% do so at least once a week. The report concluded that not only does a very significant portion of the population make a serious emotional commitment to sports (through participation and spectatorship), but that this unbridled enthusiasm cuts across age, race, gender, and income and education levels. A more recent study of over 1000 college students (Wann et al., 2001) found similar results, with approximately 70% of participants reporting that they watched sports on television and discussed sports with others at least weekly.
Although women have historically been less likely than men to be the most avid fans (Miller Brewing Company, 1983), evidence shows that the gender gap is narrowing. For example, viewership among women of all ages across the Atlanta, Barcelona, and Seoul Olympic Games increased more than did viewership among men (Women's Sports Foundation, 2002). Moreover, women today comprise roughly 47% of Major League Baseball fans, 43% of National Hockey League Fans, 47% of Major League Soccer Fans, and 40% of the fans attending National Football League games each week (Women's Sports Foundation, 2002).
Not only are women turning out in record numbers to watch men's sports, but according to recent statistics compiled by the Women's Sports Foundation (2002), they are showing a healthy appetite for women's sports as well. The 2001 U. S. Women's Open singles final between Venus and Serena Williams, broadcast in prime time on CBS, outdrew NBC's broadcast of the Notre Dame-Nebraska football game. On ESPN, the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship final in 2000 beat all of the regular season men's basketball games on ESPN and ESPN2 as well as all regular season broadcasts of men's Major League Baseball. Perhaps most impressive is that the 1999 Women's World Cup final between the U.S. and China was watched by 40 million people, making a women's game the most watched soccer match in U.S. television history. Interestingly, 49% of viewers for that game were adult men (compared with 36% adult women and 15% children under 15), suggesting that men are becoming enthusiastic about some women's sports as well.
Although media coverage of women's sports is nowhere near the level of men's in either quantity or quality (e.g., Daddario, 1998; Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988; Duncan, Messner, & Williams, 1991; Duncan, Messner, Williams, & Jensen, 1994), female athletes today are beginning to be viewed as newsworthy by the media, especially as professional women's sports (such as the Women's Pro Tennis Tour, the Women's National Basketball Association, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association) continue to draw larger audiences. One consequence of this increased media coverage is that a greater number of elite female role models than ever before are available for young athletes to emulate. Whereas male athletes have always been readily available to serve as public role models (as evidenced by the success of Nike's long-running "Be Like Mike" advertising campaign featuring basketball legend Michael Jordan), the recent visibility and popularity of women's sports means that young athletic females have an heretofore untapped source of female role models, a privilege their mothers perhaps did not enjoy growing up during the early years of Title IX. Indeed, this sentiment was expressed by former U.S. National Team Captain Carla Overbeck before the opening of the now defunct Women's United Soccer Association League: "When I grew up, there weren't any women's professional soccer players that I could want to be like. With this League there will be 200 role models who are very willing to make a positive impact on some child's life. That's important to all of us" (Building a Foundation, 2001, p. 19).
Although role model has been variously defined and is often used interchangeably with terms such as hero and mentor (e.g., Pleiss & Feldhusen, 1995), for our purposes a role model is someone with whom an admirer identifies (i.e., wants to be like). Based on identification (Kohlberg, 1963) and social learning theories (Bandura, 1977), this identification can take any of several forms, including perceived similarity with the role model, emulation of the role model's behavior, and assimilation of the role model's attitudes and values (Bell, 1970). Researchers commonly refer to "sports heroes" when discussing well-known athletes admired by people; however, we prefer the term "public athletic role models" to distinguish between athletes who potentially influence the attitudes, behaviors, and values of individuals who admire them from the more idealistic vision of a culturally-agreed upon hero who is often held to much higher standards (e.g., who must demonstrate not only physical, but also complete moral and intellectual excellence; Barney, 1985). Indeed, there is an emerging body of literature on "sporting celebrity" that explores the wide-ranging cultural and political significance of famous athletes beyond their ability to serve as role models (e.g., Andrews & Jackson, 2001). Role models can also be distinguished from mentors; whereas mentors generally interact with and have a relationship with a protege, role models may or may not interact with an admirer. In the case of public role models such as elite athletes, interaction is relatively rare, and the role model relationship is often based purely on identification from afar (Pleiss & Feldhusen, 1995; Wann et al., 2001). Regardless of the definition used, athletes have widely been considered to be appropriate and effective role models (Harris, 1994; Wann et al., 2001). For example, the Miller Lite Report (Miller Brewing Company, 1983) found that 75% of Americans polled believe that athletes are good role models for children, and a large number (59%) felt that athletes are often the best role models a child can have. Children and adolescents (especially males) seem to agree, as numerous studies show that famous athletes are either at or near the top of lists of people that they most admire or want to be like (see Harris, 1994, for a review). As Strudler (2000) suggests, ubiquitous media coverage affords athletic role models a unique and specific vantage point of influence.
Given the importance of sport in people's lives and the widespread availability of sports heroes due to extensive media coverage, the potential for influence of athletic role models seems great (Wann et al., 2001). Research on public athletic role models, however, is surprisingly sparse. Although a large body of literature has explored the impact of role models in domains other than sports, such as in educational (e.g., Erkut & Mokros, 1984; Gilbert, 1985; Pleiss & Feldhusen, 1995) or organizational contexts (e.g., Gatenby & Humphries, 1999; Gibson & Cordova, 1999), there is much less research devoted to role models in sport. Moreover, the research that does focus on athletic role models more commonly examines the influence of personal (i.e., personally known) role models, such as parents, peers, and coaches (Greendorfer, 1977; Greendorfer & Lewko, 1978; Weiss & Barber, 1995). As such, comparatively little is known about how and why public athletic role models (such as famous or professional athletes) are chosen and what influence they have on the athletes who admire them (Harris, 1986). The present study sought to contribute to the literature by addressing several unanswered questions about the prevalence, selection, characteristics, and influence of public athletic role models.
Prevalence and Selection of Public Athletic Role Models
The first goal of this research was to investigate the extent to which elite athletes are adopted as role models by admirers as well as to explore how such role models are selected. We were especially interested in three questions: First, are males and females equally likely to have public athletic role models? Second, to what extent does the tendency to have athletic role models change with age? Third, do people tend to select same-gender athletic role models?
To date, a considerable amount of the research on the prevalence of public athletic role models comes from studies which either (a) ask people about their heroes or admired people in all walks of life (e.g., Balswick & Ingoldsby, 1982; Duck, 1990; Gash & Conway, 1997; Harris, 1994) or (b) ask people specifically about their role models in domains other than sports (e.g., Basow & Howe, 1980; Erkut & Mokros, 1984; Gibson & Cordova, 1999; Gilbert, 1985; Gilbert, Gallesich, & Evans, 1983). Although these "general hero" studies often include analyses of participants' mentions of athletic role models, there are some problems in drawing conclusions from this kind of research. One major drawback is the lack of comparability across studies (Harris, 1994; Wann et al., 2001). For example, some studies focus exclusively on participants' public or famous role models, whereas others make no distinction between public and personally-known role models. Furthermore, whereas some studies constrain or limit the number of role models participants can list, others allow unlimited choices. There are also inconsistencies in wording, with some researchers asking about "heroes," others about "admired people," others about individuals whom participants "most want to be like," and still others about "favorites."
A second major limitation in previous research is that inferences about the prevalence of public athletic role models are often made by categorizing participants' open-ended responses to the general hero question, and then judging the prevalence of athletic role models in comparison to other categories of heroes participants might happen to list (e.g., entertainers, political figures, family members). Such a strategy could arguably cause researchers to underestimate the significance of athletic role models in people's lives; that is, such conclusions are based on whether or not athletes happened to be mentioned in the one or two spaces allotted for role models from all walks of life rather than on questions that directly ask participants if they have any athletic role models (the strategy used in the current study). Although we had no basis for specific predictions about the percentage of our sample that would report having public athletic role models, we suspected that the numbers might belie the pessimistic conclusion that sports are a minor source of potential role models for people (e.g., Wann et al., 2001). We also expected that males would report having more public athletic role models than would females, given research showing that males have more public heroes in general and more sports heroes specifically than do females (e.g., Duck, 1990; Harris, 1994).
Admiring public athletic role models as a function of age. There is very little empirical evidence regarding the extent to which the prevalence of role models changes over time (i.e., as a function of age). In the vast majority of studies, participants--typically children or adolescents--are asked to identify who their role models are at the time of the study. As such, the only way to ascertain the relationship between age and role model prevalence is to cobble together the results of several different studies (consisting of samples of varying ages), a less than optimal strategy given the questionable comparability of such studies as discussed above. Nevertheless, based on these kinds of cross-study comparisons, several researchers have suggested a curvilinear relationship between age and role model prevalance (e.g., Cooper et al, 1981; Harris, 1986; Smith, 1976; Wann et al., 2001), such that there is an increased interest in role models throughout childhood which peaks in the late teen years and declines throughout adulthood. The present study sought to more directly explore this question by asking participants about athletic role models they currently had as well as those they had while growing up, so that we could make a within-subjects comparison of how role model prevalence changes over time. Consistent with the hypothesized relationship suggested by others, we predicted that participants would report having fewer athletic role models currently than while growing up. Moreover, because our sample consisted primarily of adults in their 20s and 30s, we expected that younger participants would report having more athletic role models currently than would older participants.
Preference for same-gender role models. Similarity serves as a driving force when people select individuals to emulate (cf., Erkut & Mokros, 1984). For example, children tend to choose athletic role models who play the same sport (Cooper, Livingood, & Kurz, 1981) and position (Russell, 1979) that they do, and college students have been shown to select "favorite sports performers" of the same race (Vander Velden, 1986). It seems a logical extension, then, that people would prefer athletic role models of the same gender. Indeed, there is at least preliminary evidence that this may be the case. When Duck (1990) asked children from grades 5 through 9 to name up to 3 people that they "most want to be like" (including famous people, people they knew personally, and fictional media characters or imaginary people), 96% of boys and 83% of girls listed people of the same gender. Similarly, Bredemeier, Weiss, Shields, and Cooper (1986) asked boys and girls from grades 4 through 7 to identify their "favorite athlete" as part of a study on the predictors of children's morality and aggressive behavior. Consistent with Duck (1990), 98% of boys named male athletes and 68% of girls named female athletes. In a study of adults, Gilbert (1985) found that 75% of graduate students asked to name a faculty member who was their "strongest role model at the present time" nominated a same-gender role model.
Although these studies are suggestive, there are numerous other studies--both in the sports...
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