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An Exploration of Varsity Esport College Athletes’ Social Experiences in Higher Education
Black, Wayne
Black, Wayne
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Abstract
Since 2014, varsity collegiate esports have rapidly grown on college campuses across the country. Colleges use varsity esports to increase enrollments, but little is known about which student identities are represented in varsity collegiate esports. Further, there is a dearth of literature that explores the social experiences varsity esport athletes have while in college. Understanding who is represented in collegiate esports could provide insight into which people get and do not get opportunities to leverage esports as a college access tool. Examining social experience provides insight into the type of environments colleges create for varsity esport athletes and outcomes for varsity esport athletes. Therefore, this study sought to explore which social identities were represented in varsity collegiate esports and what were the social experiences that varsity esport athletes had while in college. Results revealed that while most participants had positive social experiences in college, there were still gaps in representation based on race, gender, and social class. Implications from the study identified a need to improve representation in varsity esports and areas to improve social experiences for varsity esport athletes. Future research that can build on these findings and further our understanding of varsity esport athletes are also discussed.
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Date
2022-01-01
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University of Kansas
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This item contains archived web content.
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Black_ku_0099D_18270_DATA_1.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.03 MB
- Embargoed until 2172-05-31
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Keywords
Higher education administration, college student outcomes, collegiate esports, higher education