6.4 LifecycleSome of a persons statuses within their societys .docx

6.4 Lifecycle
Some of a person's statuses within their society's particular soci
al organization vary
at different stages of life. The changes in social statuses thatare
typically experienced
by members of society make up their lifecycle.
Rites of Passage
Martha Cooper/National Geographic Stock
All cultures divide the lifecycle into various stages. Here, ayoun
g Apache girl is making the transition to
adulthood.
Arnold Van Gennep (1908/1960) has pointed out that as we mov
e from one status to
another within the lifecycle, the life events and status changes t
hat are typically
experienced by individuals are commonly proclaimed to other m
embers of society by
formal rituals known as life crisis rites or rites of passage.
Ceremonies such as christenings, puberty rituals, marriages, and
funerals, which we hold
whenever a member of society undergoes an important change i
n status within the
lifecycle of the group, are considered rites of passage. They sy
mbolically dramatize how
important status changes are in the eyes of society and help to
maintain stability and
order while society adjusts to culturally significant changes in p
eople's lives. The
acquisition of a new status calls for the successful adoption of a
new set of roles by the
person who is moving into the new phase of life. The formal dra
matization of these
changes in a ritual of status change may be psychologically ben

eficial to those who are
beginning roles that they have not practiced before, and to other
members of society who
must also adopt new ways of relating to them. Four public symb
olic rituals are commonly
celebrated throughout the world: naming ceremonies, which con
fer human status on the
new member of society and proclaim the parenthood of its caret
akers; puberty
celebrations, which confer adult status; marriages, which legiti
mize new sexual, economic,
and childrearing obligations; and funerals, which proclaim the l
oss of human status by the
deceased and restructure the ongoing social order.
Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Naming
The first lifecycle change is associated with birth. Yet even bef
ore that obviously major
event, our parents are experiencing the status changes of pregna
ncy. The biological facts
of conception, pregnancy, and the birth process are interpreted d
ifferently among various
cultures. After birth, each society also has its specific ways of r
aising children.
Pregnancy
People in most societies believe that pregnancy is a result of se
xual intercourse, but conception itself is explained in a variety
of ways. Often the
child is thought of as developing from semen, menstrual blood,
or both. In many societies, both the mother and the father are be
lieved to
contribute during intercourse to the conception and sometimes t
o the growth of the child.
Sometimes, however, the role of one parent is more
important in explaining the origin of the child. For instance, in
ancient Greece, the father was
thought to plant the child in the mother as one

might plant a seed in the field. The mother merely carried the fa
ther's child as it grew. Such a
metaphor was not uncommon in horticultural
societies in which men were dominant. In other societies, where
men and women had equal
status, the symbols of procreation might
emphasize the role of both father and mother in conception. In a
few cases, women were
thought to become pregnant without the aid of aman.
On the surface, some societies appear to be unaware of the link
between intercourse and
conception. Walter E. Roth claimed that the
indigenous people of the Tully River of North
Queensland, Australia, were ignorant of the role of sex in pregn
ancy. In their view, a woman
becomes pregnant from sitting over a fire on which she had roas
ted a black bream
that had been given to her by the man who would be thefather of
the child because she
had hunted a particular kind of bullfrog, because some men had
told her to be pregnant, or because she
dreamed that the child had been put into her (Roth, 1963).
On the other hand, Tully River people were aware that copulatio
n causes pregnancy in animals. It is unlikely, therefore, that the
y were unaware
that sex caused pregnancy in humans in a purely physiological s
ense. However, in any culture,
people's ideas about humans are never
straightforward descriptions of observed fact, uninfluenced by t
heir values. In this case, the
Tully River people's denial of the role of sex inhuman pregnanc
y was not simple ignorance; it
was a symbolic affirmation of their ideologically important val
ues. According to Leach (1969), the
pregnancy beliefs of the people of Tully River are ways of affir
ming that "the relationship

between the woman's child and the clansmen of the
woman's husband stems from public recognition of the bonds of
marriage, rather than from the facts of cohabitation" (p. 87). In
other words,
the people of Tully River believe that pregnancy is "caused" by
a woman's catching the right
kind of bullfrog in the same sense that Christians
believe that a wife's fertility is "caused" by the rice thrown at h
er at the end of her wedding ceremony.
Pregnancy Rituals
Pregnancy is a time of potential anxiety, as it is fraught with po
ssible negative outcomes such as miscarriage, physical defects i
n the baby, or
death in childbirth for either the infant or the mother. Such anxi
eties cause people to turn to
symbolic pregnancy rituals to protect the child
and pregnant woman and to aid in a successful birth. These ritua
ls are frequently expected to
apply to the husband as well as the pregnant
woman. They generally take the form of taboos against doing th
ings that have some similarity
to the feared outcomes. For instance, the Great
Basin Shoshone forbid a pregnant woman or her husband to eat
either the mud hen, which
they call the "fool's hen," or the trout, which flops
about when one catches it, since the former might result in the c
hild's being stupid and the latter in its becoming entangled in th
e umbilicalcord during labor.
Among the Aztecs of Mexico, pregnant women were forbidden t
o look at an eclipse of the sun, which they called Tonaltiu qualo
, meaning "The
sun is being eaten," as to see this phenomenon might result in a
lip defect, such as harelip, in
the unborn child. As a prophylactic against the
effects of accidentally seeing an eclipse, the Aztec mother-to-
be might wear an obsidian blade over her breast to protect the c

hild.
On the other hand, some pregnancy rules require behaviors that
are similar to the
characteristics of a good birth. The Shoshone father was
encouraged to hunt the otter because this animal is known for it
s enjoyment of sliding down
slippery riverbanks, much as the child was hoped
to pass easily through the birth canal. Like many other cultures,
U.S. culture includes several
traditional pregnancy taboos and admonitions. One
of these is based on the idea of marking. According to this belie
f, children may be influenced
by things that are done by or that happen to their
mothers during pregnancy. For instance, birthmarks might be att
ributed to the mother's having eaten too many strawberries, rasp
berries, or
other red foods. The most common expression of the concept of
marking in the United States
today is in admonitions to do things believed to
influence the child in positive ways. For instance, a pregnant w
oman may hear that by spending time listening to classical musi
c, reading good
literature, and immersing herself in art she may predispose her c
hild to similar pursuits. The
concept of the marking of an unborn child by its
mother parallels the idea that, after birth, mothers have the prin
cipal psychological influence
on the development of the child and therefore
usually receive greater credit or blame than others for what the
child becomes.
Birth
In most societies, when the woman enters labor she is attended
by one or more women who
have already experienced childbirth themselves
and who help her through the process. Most commonly, birth oc
curs with the woman assuming a kneeling or squatting position,

a posture that
facilitates the birth process more than the reclining position trad
itionally used in many Western hospitals. These upright birthing
positions havea beneficial effect on the angle of the birth
canal and take advantage of gravity in aiding the passage of the
infant.
It is only in recent years that Western medicine has begun to ab
andon its customary treatment of women in labor as if they were
ill patients
undergoing a surgical procedure. With pressure from women's g
roups, the role of the woman
in her labor has been redefined as an active
partner with others involved in the birthing process, and change
s have begun to be made in the woman's posture during childbirt
h that
facilitate her role and not simply that of the medical personnel.
For most Americans and Canadians, the preferred place for the
delivery still is a hospital in the presence of the physician and o
ne or more
nurses. North Americans generally regard it as desirable for a w
oman to seek the services of a
physician starting about 2 months into her
pregnancy. This doctor will evaluate the health of the woman, c
heck the progress of the
pregnancy, and deliver the baby if it is carried to term.However,
particularly in the United State, this ideal is not always possibl
e for those with low incomes, due to the high costs of medical
treatment and hospital care. Thus, there is an increasing return t
o the less expensive system of delivery at home with the aid of
a nurse-
midwife who, at the same time, offers more personalized care th
an does the hospital system. Many hospitals, in turn, are beginni
ng to shift
from the use of specialized labor and delivery rooms to the use
of birthing rooms, which can
save as much as half the hospital costs for abnormal delivery.

Naming
The next important symbolic act in the life of a newborn baby is
its naming ceremony. In this
ritual the baby is officially received into the
community of human beings and symbolically given human stat
us by acquiring a human name.
In either the birth or naming ritual, the infant is
commonly brought into contact with those aspects of life that ar
e of central concern to the
members of the society into which it is being
received. Thus, among the Samoans of Polynesia and the Yahga
n of southernmost Argentina
(Cooper, 1946; Murdock, 1934; Service, 1978a),
both of whom relied heavily on sea products as their main sourc
e of food, the newborn child was bathed in the sea shortly after
birth. The
Mbuti Pygmy of the Ituri Forest of Africa (Gibbs, 1965) grow n
o food but obtain all their basic
needs from the uncultivated resources of the
forest; they therefore speak of the forest as their parent and thei
r provider. They initiate their
children into the human group in a ritual in which
vines from the forest are tied around the children's ankles, wrist
s, and waists, there
by bringing them into contact with their future livelihood.
In the United States, most parents begin selecting a name for th
e child months before the birth. Most families have no formal c
ustomary rulesfor selecting the name, such as a requirement to n
ame the child after a particular relative, but many choose to do s
o. Because the selection
ofthe name is largely an aesthetic issue, the popularity of differ
ent names rises and falls over
the generations much as do fashions in dress.Names are officiall
y given without ceremony right after birth when the attending p
hysician fills out a birth certificate to be filed in the county
records. In some cases, a religious naming ceremony may be co

nducted for the child a few weeks later.
Enculturation, Childhood, and Adolescence
Comstock/Thinkstock
The transition to adulthood is an important stage in a young per
son's life.Here, a Jewish teenager completes his Bar Mitzvah rit
ual to become anadult in his religious community.
From birth through adolescence, we humans are raised in some
kind offamily setting according to the dictates of our culture. O
ur upbringing usually
includes some restrictions on free expression of our sexuality, i
ncluding
taboos against intercourse with certain family members. In man
y societies,
attaining sexual maturity is marked by special puberty rites hon
oring the passage into adulthood.
Childhood and Adolescent Sexual Socialization
Before we are able to play the role of adults with complete succ
ess, we must
acquire knowledge of the sexual customs of our society. Lookin
g cross-
culturally, we see enormous cultural variation in these customs.
For example,
the average age at which people first have sexual intercourse te
nds to be
earlier in Africa, Europe, and North America than in Asia and L
atin America.The average age
that women first have sex is at about 15 years old in Chadversus
20 years old in Cambodia
(Demographic and Health Survey, 2005).Research also shows t
hat, across cultures, teen girls are often times coerced
into having sex (MacKay, 2001). In addition to the age of first s
ex, the degree to which societies are permissive or open about s
ex varies greatly.As Margaret Mead's (1928) classic study
showed, Samoan society (at the time of her fieldwork in the 192
0s) was highly tolerant of young

people having sex and did not hide practices surrounding sex, bi
rth, or death from children.
Sexual practices, however, change over time. In the United Stat
es, in 1995, about 19% of
women between 15 and 19 years old, and 21% of men
of the same age range had had sex before age 15; in 2006–
2008, 11% of women ages 15–
19 and 14% of men of the same age range had had
sex before age 15 (Abma, 2010). More generally, U.S. adolesce
nts explore their identities as
social beings during the teenage period as they
practice the skills necessary to achieve an independent adult stat
us. Acceptance by their peers becomes extremely important, and
adolescents
begin to create a sense of independent functioning by adopting
new values that are in harmony with their peer group and with t
he social milieu
outside their family. In this period of dating, adolescents begin t
o learn the skills of courtship
and lay the foundations for their adult sexual
identities. Although ideals historically have required that both s
ex and pregnancy be delayed
until after the marriage ceremony, this is no longerthe case in pr
actice.
Puberty Rituals
Balinese Puberty Rite
For the Balinese, the end of puberty is marked by filing the sixf
ront teeth.
·
Why do Balinese celebrate the end of puberty by filingthe girls'
teeth?
·
Compare the life of Balinese teenagers with the life ofAmerican
teenagers. What is different and what is similaracross cultures?
Near the time individuals reach biological maturity, it is commo
n for a puberty ritual or

adulthood ritual to be held. This ritual signals the transition
from childhood to adulthood and impresses on both the child an
d his or her
community that the old roles of childhood are to be set aside an
d that sheor he should be
treated as an adult. During the period of transition from
childhood to adulthood, initiates may be expected to demonstrat
e that they
have acquired valued adult skills. They may go through a period
of seclusion
before the ceremony in which they are reintroduced into society
as newadults. During this
period, they may be taught special flirting techniques ordances t
hat they will be expected to
perform at the ceremony. Sometimes
they don special clothing and ornaments or wear special hairstyl
es to indicate their new status. Large, public puberty rituals—
which often involve groups of
young persons who are initiated into adulthood together—
help those
youngsters make the transition into the expected adult pattern. T
hey also
build solidarity among members of the group who go through th
e ceremony together.
In the dominant North American culture, some of the traditional
rites of
passage are relatively weak or sometimes lacking. For instance,
few people inthe United States experience any form of true pube
rty ritual as they near
adulthood. Instead we have several less significant transitions, e
ach of which
confers some of the rights of adulthood: obtaining a driver's lice
nse during
the teenage years, graduating from high school, gaining the righ
t to vote atthe age of 18, and
becoming old enough to drink alcoholic beverages legally

at the age of 21. This lack of a clear puberty ritual often creates
confusion
about the roles we are expected to play and leaves individuals to
wrestle
alone with what in the U.S. culture is commonly called an "iden
tity crisis."The existence of this
expression in everyday language is evidence of how
extensive role confusion is in this society. It suggests the benefi
ts that rites of
passage may provide to a society's members by helping them ma
intain a greater sense of self-
confidence as they undergo the normal changes
experienced by members of their group.
Not all societies practice puberty rituals, but they are relatively
common. Based on their study
of 186 "traditional" cultures, Schlegel and Barry(1991) found th
at most had puberty rituals for
adolescents: primarily for girls (79%) but also for boys (68%).
For girls, men arche is often the key
motivator for the puberty ritual, particularly because many cultu
res exhibit ambivalence about menstruation, which may be seen
as both apolluting event and a positive sign of fertility. For
boys, there tends not to be physical event that initiates the pube
rty ritual. Puberty rituals for
boys focus instead on transitioning boys into manhood by havin
g them display strength or
courage, or withstand pain (Gilmore, 1990).
Social circumstances that foster interdependent role playing can
lock people into their current
roles and make change difficult without the aid ofa mechanism f
or transformation from one
status to another. The puberty ceremony symbolically redefines
the child as an adult in a
dramatic,public fashion that is difficult for those involved to ig
nore. The ritual proclaims the
changes in rights and responsibilities that everyone in thegroup

must recognize. Participation
in large public, group puberty rituals not only helps transform y
oungsters into adults; it also builds solidarity
among the entire group that goes through the ritual together.
Puberty Rites for Males
For boys, puberty rituals seem to be most dramatic when the tra
nsition from boyhood
to manhood is potentially difficult. Under such
circumstances, male puberty rituals are
often severe and painful ordeals, involving ceremonies such as c
ircumcision (the surgical
removal of theforeskin), scarification of the body (decorating th
e body with a pattern
made of scars), tattooing, and the filing or knocking out of front
teeth as indicators of adult status.
Whiting, Kluckhohn, and Anthony (1958) found that circumcisi
on of males as a part of initiation rituals is especially associated
with three social
customs: a taboo on sex between husband and wife for a year or
more after the birth of a child, the sharing of sleeping quarters b
y mother and
child with the father's quarters elsewhere, and the establishment
of residence by a married
couple near the husband's relatives. The first two of
these customs make it more difficult for a male child to identify
with the male role, as the most available adult role model is the
mother. The
third, residence of couples near the husband's relatives, is comm
on where male solidarity is
important among adults. The conflict between theneed to identif
y with the male group as an
adult and the relatively weak childhood tie between father and s
on makes the transition from
childhood to adulthood a stressful one. Hence the dramatic ritua
lizing of the status change
through which a boy proves to the adult male

community that he is capable of adopting the adult male role.
Puberty Rites for Females
For girls, puberty rites are more likely to occur in societies whe
re the residences of newly
married couples are established near the wife'srelatives than in s
ocieties where daughters
leave home when they marry. The puberty ritual emphasizes the
young woman's new role. The more
important a woman's labor is to the family food supply, the mor
e likely it is that female puberty rituals will be practiced. As wit
h male initiation
rituals, painful ceremonies that include such things as scarificat
ion or female circumcision are
most likely in societies where the transition from
childhood to adult roles is most difficult. For girls, this occurs i
n those societies where mothers and daughters share sleeping qu
arters while thefather sleeps elsewhere. In the United States,
female puberty rites generally declined as the family was replac
ed as the primary group that
carried out the work of producing income. However, there are st
ill "coming out" parties or
"debutante balls," which function to introduce
marriageable females to males of the same social class, and ethn
ic equivalents such as the Hispanic quinceañeras, which introdu
ce 15-year-old
daughters to the families of friends of her parents.
Courtship and Marriage
Following the puberty or adulthood ritual, the next common rite
of passage is marriage.
Cultures handle courtship and mate selection in many
different ways. In many societies, parents select marital partner
s. In others, especially those in which children will establish the
ir own
households that are economically independent of their parents, c
ourtship and choice of spouse is a responsibility of the young ad
ults themselves.

Nonmarital Sex
Following puberty, the majority of societies are quite tolerant of
sexual experimentation before marriage. Frayser (1985) found t
hat 64% of hercross-
cultural sample of 61 societies had little or no restriction on pre
marital sexual relations.
According to Ford and Beach (1952), the least
permissive societies are, as might be expected, those in which w
ealth and class differences
cause parents to have the greatest interest incontrolling the mari
tal choices of their children,
and societies in which the economic and political position of fa
milies is based on male solidarity.
Marriage Ritual
Once an agreement for marriage partners has been achieved bet
ween the families, the actual
ritual of marriage may occur. Marriage rituals vary
tremendously from society to society. They may involve elabora
te symbolism and drama or
they may be as simple as a public announcement bya couple that
they consider themselves
married. Where formal rituals of marriage are customary, the s
ymbolism often emphasizes the union
being created between the two families. It may also portray the
relations, especially those of a
stressful nature, that are expected to exist
between the couple and their respective inlaws. For instance, am
ong the Aztecs of Mexico the bride was carried, like a burden, o
n the back of
the old woman who had acted as her matchmaker to the place of
the marriage. After lectures
by the elders of both families about their new
responsibilities as married persons, the capes of the couple were
tied together into a knot by
which they were joined in marriage.
G. W. Stow (1905) described a South African!

Kung San marriage ritual (which is no longer
practiced) in which the bride was captured by the
bridegroom and his family or friends from her defending relativ
es. During the wedding feast the groom was expected to seize h
old of the bride.Then the two families began to fight while the
bride's family focused their attention on beating the groom with
their digging sticks. The groomhad to succeed in holding onto h
is bride during this beating for the marriage ritual to be
complete. Had he failed, he would have lost his bride.
In Western societies the idea that the government had authority
to regulate marriages did not exist before the Middle Ages. Inst
ead, as has been common in many non-
Western societies throughout the world, marriages were created
by the negotiation of a contract between the
couple or between their respective families. No religious or gov
ernmental ceremonies were
required because marriage was simply a matter offamily law. Be
tween the 8th century and the year 1000, the ceremonies that cre
ated marriages continued to be organized by families or
individuals, but sometimes important, upper-
class members of society were honored with a ritual blessing of
the unions in church ceremonies
that generally preceded the actual wedding ceremony, which wa
s still performed according to
the secular customs of family law. Gradually,nonfamily authorit
ies became more involved in the regulation of marriages. Lando
wners, for instance, began to require the peasants who
worked their land to obtain their permission to marry and establ
ish new households, as
marriages among the peasants could involve the
movement of workers from the properties of one landowner to t
hose of another. Governments encouraged the local religious lea
ders to take
responsibility for keeping records of marriages as religious marr
iage rituals became more
common. In Western European countries, it was not

until the year 1215 that religious wedding ceremonies were requ
ired by church authorities for a marriage to be legitimate. The g
overnmental
regulation of marriage through the requirement that couples app
ly to the state for a license to marry did not become a part of th
e Western
concept of legitimate marriage until even more recently. The be
ginning of formal government
regulation of marriage occurred in 1636 when
England passed legislation that required parishes to record marr
iages. However, it was not until Napoleonic times that France b
egan requiring
citizens to register their marriages with the government, such th
at there were penalties for
failing to register marriages civilly (instead of merelyrecording
them in a parish record). England and Wales followed suit by re
quiring civil registration of marriages in 1837, but only imposed
penalties for the failure to register in 1872. Eventually, in 1929,
England became the first
country to legislate a minimum age for marriage,which was 16 y
ears old for women and men.
Types of Marriage
Marriages take several forms. Four basic types seem to exist: m
onogamous, polygynous,
polyandrous, and group marriages. These four types
differ in the number of persons of
one or both sexes who form the marriage relationship and in the
circumstances under which each tends to
be the idealized form of marriage.
In monogamous marriages two persons are joined as spouses. M
onogamous marriages are the most common form of marital unit
in all
societies, even where other forms may be idealized as more desi
rable. Yet the Cultural Diversity Database indicates that only 14
% of a sample of180 societies restrict marriage to the
monogamous form and that another 19% prefer monogamy with

out for
bidding other marriage forms(White and Douglas, 1987, p. 22).
Even in those societies in which monogamy is the norm, individ
uals may be involved in more than one
marriage during their lifetimes. For instance, despite the ideal o
f marriage as a long-
term commitment, divorce is quite common in many
societies, especially before the birth of a first child. In societies
such as the United States in
which monogamy is the accepted form of marriage,
a high rate of divorce (nearly half of marriages end in divorce)
and subsequent remarriage
creates a particular pattern called serial monogamy,in which ind
ividuals have more than one spouse, but at different times.
Everett Collection/SuperStock
Polygamy is illegal in the United States. In 1953, hundreds offu
ndamentalist Mormons were arrested in Short Creek,
Arizona, for practicing polygamy.
If men or women are permitted to marry more than one spouse a
t the same time instead
of serially, the form of marriage is referred to as polygamy. Pol
ygamous marriages may
involve one husband and several wives or one wife and several
husbands. The form of
polygamy in which one woman is married to more than one man
at a time is technically
referred to as polyandry. That form is less common than the for
m of polygamy in which
one man is married to more than one woman at a time, which is
referred to as polygyny.
Polygyny exists, in some form and to varying degrees, in approx
imately 80% of societies or
an estimated 850 societies (including the United States) (Ember
et al., 2007; Murdock,1981). It
is particularly practiced in the Middle East, sub-

Saharan Africa, and parts of Asia(Ember et al., 2007). Among th
em, Mali has one of the highest rates of polygyny, with45% of
married women being involved in polygynous unions (Madhava
n, 2002).
More generally, the highest frequency of polygynous families is
found in societies in
frontier areas; in societies where warfare in common; in societie
s in which the ratio of
adult women to men is high (a condition that is common in eithe
r of the two preceding
circumstances); in groups where rapid growth of families is ben
eficial to family survival;
and in highly patriarchal societies. Since the ratio of male to fe
male children is about
equal in all societies, relatively few men actually are able to pra
ctice polygyny even in
societies where it is the preferred marital form. Most commonly
, it is practiced by
individuals of high social standing, while most men of lower so
cial standing remain
monogamous. Because it generally takes some time and
effort to achieve the social standing that makes it possible for a
man to have more than one
wife, polygyny often involves an age difference
between spouses, with older men taking much younger wives. W
hite (1988a, 1988b) has
demonstrated that polygyny is organized into two basic
patterns: sororal polygyny and male-
stratified polygyny. In sororal polygyny a man marries two or m
ore closely related women,
often sisters.Typically, the wives share a common residence wit
h their husband. As close relatives, the co-
wives are less likely to experience jealousy than
might nonrelated co-
wives. In societies that practice this form of polygyny, social ra
nking is primarily a matter of

individual achievement. Each
additional wife and her children increase the demands on the hu
sband's efforts to provision his family. Thus, only a small numb
er of men, such
as outstanding hunters, warriors, or shamans, are able to demon
strate their success by
marrying a second or third wife. Because the inheritance
of wealth and/or high status is normally absent, inheritance righ
ts of children are not a cause of rivalry between co-wives.
Male-
stratified polygyny is more common in societies in which there
are hereditary classes. In this
form of polygamy, a small number of men
who hold positions of rank and authority (often older men of we
althy families) marry a larger
number of wives, perhaps 20 or 30. In these
societies, the labor of women is often economically valuable, an
d each new wife increases the wealth of the family and its social
prominence.The greater wealth and improved social standing m
ake it easier for the husband to acquire yet another wife. In cont
rast to sororal polygyny,
where the wives and their husbands often reside together, these
wives often have their own
residences so that their economic activities can becarried out wi
th a minimum of direct competition between co-
wives.
It is rare for a woman to have several husbands, as in a polyandr
ous marriage. This is the
idealized family type in probably less than 0.5% of theworld's s
ocieties. The most common form of polyandrous union is one in
which a woman is simultaneously married to several brothers, a
form
known as fraternal polyandry. It is advantageous where resource
s are extremely limited.
Polyandrous unions have been reported among
southern Indian and Tibetan peoples where land is at a premium

and cannot easily be further
subdivided from one generation to the next. A
form of temporary polyandry that is sometimes called anticipato
ry levirate was also practiced by the Shoshone of the Great Basi
n and the
Comanche of the Plains. In this form, a man might temporarily s
hare his wife with a younger
brother until he was old enough to make his own
way as an independent hunter with his own family. In the event
of the older brother's death,
the younger might continue to live as the husbandof the polyand
rous wife. Just as polygyny is
only practiced by a minority of men (even in societies that prefe
r this marital form), only a minority
of women are actually able to practice polyandry in societies wh
ere it is the preferred form of marriage. Further, because each p
olyandrous
marriage requires more than one husband, many women are nev
er able to marry. In
polyandrous societies where the wealth of a family is
based on the husbands' cooperative agricultural labor, unmarrie
d women are economically
disadvantaged and may have to enter low-ranked
occupations to survive. The importance of male labor in these s
ocieties also makes it likely that female infanticide will be pract
iced.
It should be noted that polyandry is not a "mirror image" of pol
ygyny. In polygynous societies, men are permitted to have more
than one wife,
but women may have only one husband. In polyandrous societie
s, men are not generally
forbidden to have more than one wife. Also, polyandryis not ass
ociated with female dominance. Rather, fraternal polyandry is a
means of keeping brothers together so that their means of
livelihoodneed not be divided. Thus, the husbands in polyandro
us families typically control their families' means of livelihood.

In fact, the continuity ofthe male line of inheritance in
polyandrous societies may result in descent being patrilineal (se
e Section 6.3: Kinship), fatherhood being
determined by a social convention other than the idea of biologi
cal ancestry. For instance, each of the co-
husbands may assume fatherhood of
children born during a particular period. Because of the centrali
ty of the economic role of
husbands, polyandry, like polygyny, is often associated
with the subordination of women rather than higher status for w
omen or gender equality.
When several males are simultaneously married to several femal
es, their union is called group marriage. Group marriage and pol
yandry typically occur together, but group marriage
and polygyny do not. Women in polyandrous families in some w
ays have higher status than those in
polygynous families. For instance, the sexuality of plural wives
in
polygynous families is often jealously guarded by their husband
s, but not in apolyandrous
society in which married women will have plural mates as a mat
ter of course. On the other hand, no such contrast exists for
husbands in these two family types. Polyandrous
societies typically have no rules against husbands sometimes ma
rrying plural wives, something
that wives in polygynous societies are not likely to be permitted
to do.
When one of a woman's husbands in a polyandrous society marri
es another woman—often a sister of the original wife—
the new bride also becomes the wife of co-husbands in
the original marriage as well. Such
simultaneously polyandrous and polygynous families
are also considered group marriages.
Fixed-
term marriages are marriages that are contracted as temporary re
lationships. These marriages legitimize a sexual relationship in

which the
usual marriage characteristics, such as economic obligations or t
he expectation of childrearing, may be minimized. In fixed-
term marriages, thelength of time of the marriage is agreed upon
before it begins, so that it will come to an end after a specified
period of time or whenever the
activities that make it convenient for the couple to remain toget
her have run their course. For instance, fixed-
term marriages came into
existence in Islam in order for soldiers to have legitimate sexual
partners while they were
fighting in foreign wars for long periods. At the end ofthe husba
nd's military duty, his
temporary marriage was dissolved, and he was free to return ho
me with no further obligation to the divorced
wife. Fixed-
term marriages are legally recognized in several Middle Eastern
countries, such as Iran and Kuwait.
A marriage can exist legally without a family being established
in order to allow one or both
partners to obtain social benefits that would be
unavailable otherwise. Such a marriage is called a fictive marria
ge. For instance, immigration
and naturalization quotas in the United States have
resulted in the practice of marriages between U.S. citizens and p
otential immigrants or resident aliens for no purpose other than
to facilitate the
immigration or acquisition of citizenship by the noncitizen part
ner. In such a case, the parties to the marriage may not establish
a commondomicile or sexual relationship; indeed, they need
not be acquainted before the marriage nor see each other again
afterward. This particular
example of fictive marriage is one that is legally rejected by U.
S. immigration authorities and
punishable by law, but analogous fictive marriages
do exist in societies where they are openly accepted as valid me

ans to an end. For instance,
among the Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast it is
possible for a man to marry the male heir of a chief as a means
of inheriting certain privileges from the father-in-
law. When there is no heir tomarry, a man may marry the chief's
arm or leg as a legally valid
way of becoming an inheritor.
Ghost Marriage Among the Nuer of the Sudan
Evans-
Pritchard (1951) described an interesting form of fictive marria
ge practiced by the Nuer, a cattle-
herding people who live inthe savanna region of the Upper Nile
in the Sudan. Ghost marriages occur when the close, married or
unmarried, male kinsman
of a man or boy who died before he had any legal heirs, marries
a woman in the name of the
deceased relative. The living
vicarious husband gives the family of the bride a number of catt
le, as the deceased man would have done had he married the
woman while he was still alive. Legally, the woman will be the
ghost's bride, and all of the
children she bears will be his.However, the vicarious husband w
ill be treated in all other
respects as if he were the woman's real husband, something that
isnot true in the case of the
levirate. As with the levirate, the purpose of a ghost marriage is
to bear children who will be heirs to
the deceased husband. However, ghost marriage differs from the
levirate in several important ways. A leviratic marriage unites a
widow with a surrogate for her deceased husband. The wife in a
ghost marriage is not the
widow of the deceased, but she
becomes his wife through a marriage ritual with a living surroga
te after the death of the ghost husband, whom she, in most
cases, might never have known while he was alive.

Ghost marriages among the Nuer are almost as common as simpl
e marriages between a man
and woman, partly because each
ghost marriage tends to create anew the circumstance which req
uires ghost marriages in the
first place: a man who enters aghost marriage as the vicarious h
usband obtains no descendants through that marriage; he may w
ell die before he is able to
found a lineage of his own; and it will be up to one of his broth
ers or nephews to enter a ghost marriage in his behalf. Thus the
Nuer "solution" to the "problem" of men who die without
children perpetuates the very situation it is intended to eliminat
e. Such a situation suggests
that some pragmatic benefits may accrue to Nuer families who p
ractice ghost marriage.
How might Nuer ghost marriage benefit the living? An answer t
o this question is suggested by other customs related to ghost
marriage. The Nuer not only assert that a dead man may be the l
egal father of children born
long after his death, but also that aghost may continue to own pr
operty. When a man dies without heirs, any cattle he may have o
wned do not revert to the larger
family herd, but remain ghok jookni, "cattle of the ghost." Such
cattle are sacred and may not
properly be used for any purpose
other than as payment to a bride's family for her bearing of chil
dren in the name of the ghost.
This restriction has furtherimplications: according to Evans-
Pritchard (1956), "When Nuer raid a herd to seize cattle in com
pensation for some injury they
will not take cattle reserved for the marriage of a ghost" (p. 111
). So the idea that uninherited cattle remain the property of the
dead benefits the survivors because such property is still under t
heir control and can be used
for several purposes. The cows maybe milked while they are he
ld in trust for the deceased

owner, they may be used to obtain a wife for one of their living
sons (so long as he enters a
fictive marriage in behalf of the dead owner of the cattle that pa
ys for the marriage), and they cannot be
taken from the family in payment of debts as their other cattle c
an. Thus ghost marriage is, in
reality, part of a larger web of
cultural concepts that includes some economic benefits similar t
o those of family trusts in the United States.
Probably the most widespread forms of fictive marriage are the
levirate and the sororate. The
levirate is the obligation of a dead man's next of
kin, usually one of his brothers, to marry the dead man's widow.
Commonly, at least the first
child of this union is considered to be the
offspring of the first husband. This custom is especially importa
nt in societies that stress the
importance of the line of descent through males, as
it provides a way for men who die without heirs to have descend
ants. It also cements anew the marriage alliance between the tw
o families
whose children were originally united in marriage. At the same t
ime, it provides the widow with someone who will continue to p
erform the
duties of a husband. The sororate is a similar custom in which a
widower, or sometimes the
husband of a barren woman, marries his first wife's
sister. Again, at least some of the children born to this second m
arriage are considered children of the first wife, a particular ben
efit in societies
where ancestry is traced primarily through women. Like the levi
rate, the sororate ensures that
the marriage tie between the two in-
law familieswill not be dissolved by the death of one partner an
d that the survivor will continue to have a mate.
Just as legitimate marriages may exist without a sexual compon

ent, nonreproductive marriages may still fulfill the other functio
ns of marriage
and be socially accepted. Marriages of this type include those b
y persons past their
reproductive years and same-
sex marriages, both of whichare legitimate in a large number of
human societies. Same-sex marriages consist of both male–
male and female–female relationships. Cross-culturally, same-
sex relationships that are regarded as marriages seem to fall into
two different patterns: those that involve partners of more-or-
less the same age and those where there is a customary age diffe
rence between the partners.
The first marriage form has been referred to aspathic marriages
(Gregerson, 1983) or intragenerational marriages (Adam, 1986),
while the second have been called mentorships (Herdt, 1981)or
intergenerational marriage (Adam, 1986).
Marriage in the United States
Couples in the United States today are marrying later than they
were a generation ago.
The median age of males marrying for the first time is
nearly 26 years, and for females
it is slightly over 23 years. The ideal of romantic love as a basis
for marriage is perhaps
nowhere else in theworld so strongly supported as it is in the Un
ited States.
Why is romantic love such an important ideal in the U.S. courts
hip and marriage system? One
factor, certainly, is the economic unimportance of
the nuclear family as a unit of production in the country. As ind
ustrialization undermined the
economic role of the extended family, the marital
choices of children grew increasingly independent of parental a
uthority. As parental decision
making in the choice of mates declined, emotional
attraction became central to the process of mate selection. Anot
her factor in the maintenance of the ideal of romantic love appe

ars to be the
dependent economic status of women. The romantic ideal stress
es the role of women as
objects of love, valued for their emotional, aesthetic,nurturing,
and moral contributions to
society rather than for their economic productivity and practical
contributions outside the
domesticsphere. This romanticizing of women as economically
dependent love objects contrast with actual current marriage pra
ctices in which over half
of married women are employed outside the home.
Just how does mate selection actually proceed? Several research
ers suggest a model that
involves a sequence of stages. First, proximity is animportant f
actor. People are most likely to
get together with those whom they are likely to encounter. Thu
s, in spite of their mobility, most
people in the United States actually marry a partner who lives w
ithin a few miles of them.
Ineichen (1979) found that almost 65% of a sampleof 232 marri
ed couples lived in the same city before they married, most of th
em coming from the same area or adjacent areas of the city.
Today, technologies such as the Internet are influencing how co
uples meet, but according to
the Pew Internet and American Life polls, as of2006, only 3% o
f married couples met on the
Internet (Madden & Lenhart, 2006).
Initial attraction is likely to be based on easily observable chara
cteristics such as physical
attractiveness, dress, and evidence of social power and
prestige. After meeting one another, couples' compatibility of v
alues and attitudes is especially
important. Agreement on religious, sexual,
familial, and political values is a good predictor of the develop
ment of a stable relationship
(Kerkhoff & Davis, 1962). Burgess and Wallin (1953)

found that engaged couples were remarkably similar in their phy
sical attractiveness, physical
health, mental health, social popularity, race,religion, parents' e
ducational levels, parents'
incomes, and the quality of their parents' marriages. Thus, simil
arity seems to be an important
element in the attraction that leads to relationships. Current rese
arch continues to confirm these findings.
Parenthood
With marriage may come children, turning the social unit into a
family. The relationship
between spouses generally changes at the birth of the
first child. It creates new obligations for the husband and wife a
nd new demands on their time and energy. Their domestic roles
must be
adjusted to accommodate their new status as parents. No longer
will they have as much
exclusive time for each other.
In societies in which the family organization is important econo
mically and politically, entry into parenthood may be formally i
ndicated by a
change in the parents' names. Using this custom, called teknony
my, a parent might be called
Father of Lynn or Mother of Kay. Teknonymy is
most often practiced by men in societies in which the couple tak
es up residence with or near
the wife's family. Women may practice it as well
but in fewer societies. In either case, it reflects an elevation in t
he social rank of the individual, as, because of the birth of the c
hild, he or she is
no longer considered an outsider to the family with which the co
uple resides. The name change calls attention to the greater bon
d that now exists between the new parent and the in-laws.
Divorce
Not all marriages last until the death of a spouse. In the United
States, for instance, between 40% and 50% of marriages are like

ly to end indivorce, the termination of a marriage relationship.
Around the world, there are societies with higher and lower rate
s of divorce. Reasons for
divorce vary, but impotence, infertility, infidelity, laziness, and
simple incompatibility are
common justifications. In three quarters of the
nonindustrialized societies that have been studied by anthropolo
gists, women and men have
been more or less equal in their right to divorce(Murdock, 1957)
. In the United States, the
divorce rate grew progressively from the 1800s until about 1980
. Since that time, the rate has been
declining. However, for decades, women have been more likely
than men to initiate a divorce. According to a recent study, two
thirds ofdivorces are filed by women (Brinig & Allan, 2000).
Cross-
cultural variations in divorce rates make it possible to discover
some of the factors that make
divorce less likely. The payment of a
marriage gift to the bride's family gives her family a vested inte
rest in the stability of the
marriage because the groom's family is likely to
demand return of the payment if the marriage is dissolved. The
dowry, a transfer of wealth
from the bride's family to the husband, has a similar
effect of stabilizing marriage ties. When the couple lives in an e
xtended family, relatives are
also likely to have a stabilizing effect on their
marriage. Matrilocality, the establishment of residence by a mar
ried couple with or near the
family of the wife, is associated with a low divorce
rate. Perhaps this is because this form of residence gives the wo
men more control over
property, which is associated with greater-than-usual
social power and honor for women and less familial authority fo
r the husband, who resides with his in-

laws. Under these conditions, thefrequency of abusive behavior
by the husband is often times relatively low.
Old Age
©Getty Images/Photos.com/Thinkstock
In many cultures, the elderly are viewed as a repository ofexperi
ence and wisdom, and they continue to be activecontributing me
mbers of society.
Many of us want to grow older, but we do not want to grow old.
The negative feelings we
have about aging are partly related to our cultural perceptions o
f the loss of health and
strength that accompany the aging process, as well as the potent
ial loss of social rank.What are the factors that contribute to the
loss of social power and honor that old age
brings in societies such as our own? Cross-
cultural research sheds some light on this question.
Respect or lack of respect for the aged is conditioned by circum
stances that support one
or the other attitude. For instance, in nonliterate societies, older
people who are no
longer economically as productive as they once were may still b
e valued as repositories of
knowledge that is important to others. Similarly, in societies in
which witchcraft and
sorcery beliefs are prominent, people who have lived a long whi
le are likely to be
considered powerful, their age being considered evidence of the
ir having been able to
negotiate an otherwise dangerous existence successfully. Probab
ly the most powerful
general predictors of attitudes toward older people are customs t
hat govern where newly
married persons take up residence and the economic roles of old
er people. When
postmarital residence rules require a couple to live near one spo

use's parents, it is easier
for the parents to continue their roles as family heads into their
old age. In societies in
which the family is a cooperating economic or political group, a
n older person's status as
family head can be a major determinant of his or her rank in life
. According to a study of
nonindustrialized societies by Lee and Kezis (1979), nuclear fa
milies lack a structure in
which parents can maintain their role of family heads into old a
ge. Older people are more likely to have high-
ranked statuses in societies in which they live with related marri
ed
couples and in societies in which descent is traced through only
one of the parents (patrilineal
or matrilineal societies) rather than through
both. However, if an extended family is too large to be easily le
d by a single family head or
couple, decisions may be made by smaller groups
within the extended family. When the political power or wealth
of a family is not consistently
related to a particular lineage, parents' rank is lesslikely to rise
with age compared to societies
in which familial power or wealth is strongly related to one's li
neage.
In all societies, the elderly are accorded more respect if they are
socially and/or economically
productive. Thus, in industrialized societies where
rank is associated closely with wealth and income, the social ra
nk of the elderly tends to
decline markedly at retirement.
Death
Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock
One of the most difficult transitions for a group is perhapsthe d
eath of a member. In Bali, the traditional funeralcustom is crem

ation.
Simple and obvious criteria such as the absence of breathing, he
artbeat, or reaction to
pain have been used in societies throughout the world to determ
ine when biologicaldeath has occurred. With the development of
a technology to measure brain functioning
directly, in the United States and other industrialized societies,
more emphasis seems to
be directed toward defining death as the cessation of activity in
the cerebral cortex of the
brain, the center of intellectual and conscious processes. Howev
er, these criteria may not
always agree with one another. For instance, the cerebral cortex
may no longer be active,
while the heart and lungs continue to operate, or a person may b
e comatose and
unresponsive to pain, yet later report having been fully aware of
the surroundings. Life-
support systems used to maintain the vital functions of comatos
e patients whose heart
and lungs have stopped functioning further complicate the proce
ss of determining biological death.
Psychological death refers to the process by which people prepa
re themselves subjectively
for their impending biological death. Elisabeth Kübler-
Ross (1969), who studied dyingpatients' responses to their circu
mstances in U.S. hospitals,
identified five coping patterns
that patients exhibit as distinct stages in the process of coming t
o terms with their
impending deaths. The first reaction described by Kübler-
Ross is denial. Patients refuse to
accept the correctness of the diagnosis, insisting that some error
has been made or that
their records have been confused with those of someone else. Th
eir basic attitude might

be summed up as, "There must be some mistake; this cannot be
happening to me!" The
second response of patients to learning that they are dying is an
ger, which is
characterized by rage, envy, and resentment. In this reaction, th
e dominant question is,"Why
me, why not someone else?" The anger may be directed at anyon
e at hand—other
patients, doctors, nurses, even family members who come to visi
t and comfort the person.The
third reaction is one of bargaining for more time. In this coping
strategy, patients seek a slight extension of their deadline—
to allow doing something "for one last time" or
some similar request, in return for which they vow to live a bett
er life. Depression is the fourth response, in which the dying pe
rson mourns
because of the approaching loss of people and things that have b
een meaningful in his or her
life. Finally, some patients respond with
acceptance, a kind of quiet expectation. Acceptance is not a stat
e of happiness but one of rest
in which there are almost no strong feelings, and
the patient's interests narrow as he or she gradually withdraws f
rom everyday life in
preparation for what is about to happen. This may be atime of gr
eat distress for the patient's
family, as they may feel rejected by the patient's withdrawal an
d lack of interest in their visits. WhileKübler-
Ross emphasized these five coping patterns, others (Corr, 1993)
have suggested that these
reactions do not necessarily occur in any
specific sequence and that some individuals may not experience
all five.
Funeral Rites of the Dogon in Mali
The Dogon funeral celebrations are noisy and colorful. Dogonpe
ople do not celebrate the deaths of minors.

·
What do you see as the largest difference between funeralrites i
n mainstream America and the funeral rites of theDogon of Mali
? Are there any similarities?
·
How and why is old age defined differently in Mali and inthe U.
S?
Socially, death brings about the final change of status in the hu
man lifecycle—
the change from a human status to a nonhuman one. Social deat
h is the
point at which other people begin to relate to a dying person wit
h behaviors
and actions that are appropriate toward someone already biologi
cally dead.
Like psychological death, social death may occur before biologi
cal death. W.H. Rivers (1926)
reported that among the Melanesians, the word mate, which
means "dead person," was applied not only to the biologically d
ead but also
to individuals who were gravely ill, close to death, and to the ve
ry old who
were likely to die soon. The Melanesians, of course, distinguish
ed between
biological mate and social mate. The purpose of referring to tho
se who were
close to death as mate was that they were treated socially as if t
hey were
dead. Such persons might be buried alive so that they could pro
ceed to a
more pleasant afterlife rather than linger among the living under
the
unpleasant circumstances of extreme age or terminal illness. Am
ong the Inuit
of the Arctic, the survival of hunting families would be endange
red if they

slowed their wanderings through arctic wastes in search of food
to allow the
aged or infirm to keep up. Eventually, at the urging of the afflic
ted party, the
Inuit might hold a funeral ceremony and say goodbye to the one
who had to be left behind to die so that others might live.
Since all societies must restructure their social relations so that
the work of
the world may be continued after the death of a member, ceremo
nies that
mark the death of persons are found in each society. The most d
ramatic
aspect of this social custom is manifest in funeral rituals. Funer
al rituals
provide a mechanism for dealing with and disposing of the body
of the
deceased and, at the same time, provide a setting in which the s
urvivors can
be encouraged to adjust themselves to the person's now permane
nt absence.As a part of this
second role of funeral rituals, issues of inheritance of
property rights and of passing on the statuses of the deceased to
new
persons are dealt with in many societies during or immediately f
ollowing the funeral.
Death in the United States has been largely removed from the fa
milial context by other social
institutions that have taken over the management
of the dying and the dead. Hospitals and nursing homes care for
the terminally ill (who often
die in such facilities) and insulate the surviving
family members from much of the dying process. Traditionally,
doctors and nurses have tended to avoid telling terminal patients
that they were
dying. A specialized funeral industry exists to take care of the p
ractical necessities preparatory

to burial, and to usher the survivors through thefuneral and mou
rning process.
Racial and Athletic Identity of African American Football
Players at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
and Predominantly White Institutions
Jesse A. Steinfeldt
Indiana University-Bloomington
Courtney Reed
Kentucky State University
M. Clint Steinfeldt
Southern Oregon University
This study examined racial and athletic identity among African
American foot-
ball players at historically Black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) and pre-
dominantly White institutions (PWIs). Negotiating the dualism
of racial and
athletic identities can be problematic because both roles are
subject to preju-
dice and discrimination, particularly for student-athletes in
revenue-producing
sports like football. Results indicated that seniors at both
institution types
reported significantly lower levels of Public Regard and that
lower levels of
Public Regard predicted higher levels of college adjustment.
Senior football

players reported a greater acknowledgment that society does not
value African
Americans, and this acknowledgment predicted greater college
adjustment. No
differences between institution types in racial Centrality
emerged, but football
players at PWIs reported higher levels of Athletic Identity. By
garnering a bet-
ter understanding of the psychosocial needs of African
American football play-
ers, these results can inform college student personnel who can
prioritize
facilitating student-athlete academic and life skills with the
same attention
given to ensuring their athletic success.
Keywords: racial identity; athletic identity; African American
student-
athletes; football; college adjustment
3
JOURNAL OF BLACK PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 36 No. 1,
February 2010 03-24
DOI: 10.1177/0095798409353894
© 2010 The Association of Black Psychologists
EDITORS’ NOTE: This article was accepted under the
editorship of Shawn O. Utsey
at NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY on November 17,
2015jbp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://jbp.sagepub.com/

4 JOURNAL OF BLACK PSYCHOLOGY / FEBRUARY 2010
Contemporary research has investigated the experiences of
African
American college students. These studies have utilized variables
such as
perceived ethnic fit (Chavous, Rivas, Green, & Helaire, 2002),
cultural
heritage and identity (Cole & Jacob Arriola, 2007), and racial
identity
(Hudson Banks & Kohn-Woods, 2007; Killeya, 2001; Neville &
Lily, 2000;
Pillay, 2005) to describe the college experiences of African
American stu-
dents who attend predominantly White institutions (PWIs).
Several studies
have also examined the experiences of African American
students at his-
torically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in
comparison with
those at PWIs (Cokley, 1999; Cokley & Helm, 2001; Sellers,
Chavous, &
Cooke, 1998; Worrell, Vandiver, Schaefer, Cross, & Fhagen-
Smith, 2006).
In spite of the increased attention to this necessary area of
inquiry, com-
paratively little attention has been devoted to the experience of
African
American student-athletes in this regard. Studies that have
explored the
college experience of African American student-athletes have
traditionally
focused on academic success and persistence measured by
cognitive factors
(Hyatt, 2003). This is problematic because measures of

cognitive factors
(e.g., ACT, SAT, and GPA) tend to correlate with persistence
among White
college students, but this relationship is not the same with non-
White col-
lege students (Sedlacek & Adams-Gaston, 1992). While
psychosocial vari-
ables other than traditional cognitive measures have been shown
to be
successful in predicting persistence among African American
students,
particularly student-athletes (Sedlacek & Adams-Gaston, 1992;
Tracy &
Sedlacek, 1987), prior research has not investigated culturally
relevant psy-
chosocial variables. Consequently, the current study intended to
combine
culturally appropriate psychosocial variables (i.e., racial
identity) with a
psychosocial variable relevant to this specific population (i.e.,
athletic iden-
tity) in an effort to better understand the college adjustment of
African
American student-athletes, particularly football players, at
PWIs and at
HBCUs.
ExPERIENCES OF AFRICAN AmERICAN STUDENT-
ATHLETES
Sport is an area for social and racial resistance, a contested
racial terrain
wherein African Americans define themselves and the
relationship of their
race within society at large (Hartmann, 2000). Carrington and
mcDonald

(2002, p. 12) suggest that a “culture of racism is deeply
ingrained in sport.”
Within this context, African American student-athletes face a
great risk for
poor college adjustment based on their membership in multiple
at-risk
groups (Killeya, 2001), by belonging to a racial/ethnic minority
group, by
being a student-athlete, and by participating in a revenue-
producing sport
Steinfeldt et al. / RACIAL AND ATHLETIC IDENTITY AT
HBCU AND PWI 5
(e.g., football and men’s basketball). This assertion may be
explained by
the fact that African American male student-athletes in revenue-
producing
sports endure unique encounters with discrimination in their
college experi-
ence (Astin, 1984; Hyatt, 2003; Simons, Bosworth, Fujita, &
Jensen, 2007).
Differential racial experiences among student-athletes is also
supported by
Lawrence (2005), who concluded from her qualitative study that
race plays
a role in the lives of African American student-athletes but not
in the lives
of their White teammates.

In addition to instances of discrimination, African American
student-
athletes face isolation, integration, and commitment as barriers
to positive
college adjustment (Hyatt, 2003). Isolation can paradoxically
exist despite
the high level of public visibility afforded to student-athletes
through atten-
tion to their athletic performance. The campus perception is that
student-
athletes are admitted under special circumstances, and as a
result, both their
student peers and faculty marginalize their academic potential
(Hyatt,
2003). Research has indicated that faculty members hold
prejudicial beliefs
against student-athletes, particularly Black student-athletes in
revenue-
producing sports (Engstrom, Sedlacek, & mcEwen, 1995;
Simons et al.,
2007). Engstrom et al. (1995) studied the attitudes of 128
faculty members,
91% of whom were White, and discovered that faculty members
hold
prejudicial attitudes toward student-athletes in general.
However, certain
scenarios (e.g., a student-athlete driving an expensive sports
car) in the
study elicited responses that the authors attributed to faculty
perceptions
that African Americans in revenue-producing sports are
disadvantaged
student-athletes who are unable to afford luxury items unless
they are
attained illegally (Engstrom et al., 1995). In another study,
African

American student-athletes reported a much higher degree of
negative per-
ceptions from faculty than their teammates of different races.
Twenty-nine
percent of African American student-athletes in this sample
reported they
were suspected or accused of cheating in class, compared with
only 6% of
their White teammates (Simons et al., 2007).
While African American football players are a highly visible
population
on campus, they are not often perceived in a manner that
socially integrates
them into the campus community. This feeling of isolation and a
lack of
integration can be influenced by the racial climate of the
campus. Racially
homogenous isolation found on most college campuses can
create social
adaptation problems when African American students are
required to
assimilate into predominantly White environments (Cureton,
2003).
Assimilation problems could negatively affect one’s self-
concept (Brown,
2001) and force students of color to expend cognitive and
affective energy
in this process when their peers can allocate energy elsewhere.

The cultural values of an institution influence the way that
student
behavior is evaluated, the directions in which educators attempt
to move
students, and the knowledge base that is utilized to assess and
explain
student development (mcEwan, Roper, Bryant, & Lange, 1999).
HBCUs
provide campus environments that are specifically designed to
meet the
needs of African American students with curricula that include
a greater
integration of Black history and culture. When compared with
students at
PWIs, African American students at HBCUs enjoy closer
relationships
with faculty and are more integrated into campus life through
greater
participation in campus organizations and activities (Webster,
2002).
Thus, it is possible that students at PWIs and HBCUs may have
different
experiences and engagement with the campus environment, but
little
research has explored student-athlete experiences in these
different
institution types.
In addition to perceptions of discrimination and isolation that
may have
an institutional influence, African American student-athletes
also face
issues related to commitment as a major barrier to college
adjustment

(Hyatt, 2003). Commitment may be viewed within multiple and
interactive
domains, such as academic commitment (e.g., degree
commitment and
institutional commitment), athletic commitment, and other areas
of com-
mitment (e.g., social and philanthropic). A high level of
institutional com-
mitment, or attachment to the university and campus
community, can
enhance the student’s willingness to get involved in the social
and academic
aspects of the campus, thereby increasing degree commitment in
the pro-
cess (Hyatt, 2003). For student-athletes, aspects of academic
commitment
may be undermined by the influence of athletic commitment.
The logistics
of athletic commitment require college football players to often
spend
upward of 40 hours per week lifting weights, running, watching
films,
studying game plans, and doing an overwhelming variety of
football-
related activities outside of their academic responsibilities
(Simons et al.,
2007). These logistic constraints contribute to a commitment
dilemma
wherein the athlete portion of the student-athlete moniker
supersedes the
student aspect, particularly for football players who strongly
identify with
being an athlete.
ATHLETIC IDENTITY

Athletic identity is the degree to which a person identifies with
the athlete
role (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993). murphy, Petitpas,
and Brewer
(1996) view athletic identity as the combination of cognitive,
affective,
behavioral, and social aspects relating to the role of athlete. An
overly salient
HBCU AND PWI 7
athletic identity has been linked to negative outcomes such as
academic
disengagement (Adler & Adler, 1985; Lewis, 1993) and greater
difficulty
transitioning out of sport (Grove, Lavallee, & Gordon, 1997).
Cornelius
(1995) views athletic identity through the lens of a
multidimensional self-
concept theory. Within this framework, psychological identity
as an athlete
can be conceptualized as one domain of a multidimensional
self-concept.
Cornelius purports that including the athlete role into one’s
self-concept has
the potential to influence social relationships, the activities that
one seeks,
and the way that an individual processes his/her experiences.
According to

Adler and Adler (1991), this influence on social relationships
may be recip-
rocal wherein strongly athletically identified persons may
influence their
social networks and lead to the creation of athletic subcultures.
RACIAL IDENTITY
much like athletic identity, the development of racial identities
is either
nurtured or hindered in the athletic domain (Hartmann, 2000).
Racial iden-
tity, the sense of collective identity based on a perception of
common racial
heritage, is perhaps the most heavily investigated area among
African
Americans (Killeya-Jones, 2005). Because it is believed to
influence
African American students’ perceptions of the college
environment, racial
identity is important to understanding African American
students’ vulner-
ability to academic failure and psychological stressors (Hatter
& Ottens,
1998). Shaped by cumulative social experiences, racial identity
should be
viewed as situationally emergent because it is enacted as a
reaction to
context-specific social interactions (Davis & Gandy, 1999).
The multidimensional model of racial identity (mmRI; Sellers,
Rowley,
Chavous, Shelton, & Smith, 1997) is a model of racial identity
used to
assess the content and meaning ascribed to African Americans’
racial iden-

tity. The mmRI delineates multiple dimensions in an effort to
provide a
framework for examining greater complexity in the function and
structure
of racial identity in the lives of African Americans. This
typological model
integrates both universal and Afrocentric approaches and asserts
that racial
identity has properties that are both stable and situationally
specific. The
mmRI focuses on African Americans’ beliefs regarding the
significance of
race in how they define themselves, the qualitative meanings
the individual
ascribes to membership in their racial group, and how these
beliefs influ-
ence behavior (Sellers et al., 1997).
The mmRI is measured by the multidimensional Inventory of
Black
Identity (mIBI; Sellers, Smith, & Shelton, 1998). The mIBI has
three
domains (i.e., Centrality, Regard, and Ideology) that produce
seven scales.
The first scale, Centrality, measures whether race is a core
aspect of an
individual’s self-concept. The Public Regard scale assesses

one’s percep-
tion of how other groups positively or negatively view African
Americans.
The Private Regard scale taps into the extent to which an
individual person-
ally regards his/her own racial group. The first of the four
Ideology scales,
Nationalist Ideology, measures the level to which an individual
emphasizes
the uniqueness of being African American and being in control
of one’s
destiny with minimal input from other groups. The Humanist
Ideology
scale assesses the degree to which an individual accentuates the
common-
alities among all humans independent of distinguishing
characteristics such
as race, gender, and class. The Humanist Ideology and the
Nationalist
Ideology theoretically exist on opposite ends of an ideological
continuum.
The Assimilationist Ideology scale measures the degree to
which an indi-
vidual highlights the mutuality between African Americans and
the remain-
der of the American society, thereby endorsing the strategy of
working
within established systems to promote change. The fourth and
final
Ideology scale that represents the seventh mIBI scale is the
minority
Ideology, which taps into the degree to which an individual
describes the
common denominators with which all minority groups are
confronted, thus
endorsing the position that all minorities (e.g., LGBT, women,

and those
with disability) should band together to bring about societal
change.
CURRENT STUDY
Cornelius’s (1995) view of athletic identity within a
multidimensional
self-concept conceptualization is consistent with the tenets of
the MMRI.
According to the MMRI, an individual’s level of racial identity
will be
related to his/her social network, choice of friends and
activities, and the
way in which the individual reciprocally interacts with the
environment,
which is also consistent with how Adler and Adler (1991)
conceptualize
athletic identity. The mmRI makes the assumption that African
Americans
have a number of hierarchically ordered identities of which race
is merely
one, thus creating space for the intuitive inclusion of other
identities, such
as the athlete identity.
In spite of this potential theoretical link between sport and race,
there is
a dearth of studies that have examined racial identity and
athletic identity in
conjunction, with a particular absence of institution-type (i.e.,
HBCUs and
PWIs) comparison studies that focus on student-athletes. The
role of the
athletic subculture should be considered an integral aspect of
student-athlete

development (melendez, 2006), and the racial climate needs to
be examined
because universities that attempt to affirm the racial identities
of African
HBCU AND PWI 9
American students increase the chances that these students will
experience
success in college and beyond (Bennett & xie, 2000). The
current study
aimed to first examine how racial and athletic identity affect
college adjust-
ment (i.e., Social Adjustment and Institutional Attachment)
among African
American student-athletes who play intercollegiate football, and
second,
compared the experiences of African American football players
at PWIs
with those who play in the unique cultural context created by
HBCUs.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
To the first aim, we hypothesized that higher levels of Athletic
Identity
would predict lower levels of Institutional Attachment among
African
American football players. Student-athletes who emphasize

their identity
as an athlete at the expense of their student identity experience
negative
outcomes (Lewis, 1993). An elevated sense of athletic identity
may under-
mine their college adjustment by decreasing commitment to
educational
goals, as demonstrated by lower levels of Institutional
Attachment. We also
hypothesized that higher levels of Assimilationist Ideology
would predict
higher levels of Social Adjustment because African American
students may
use assimilation as a strategy to survive in a predominantly
White environ-
ment (Cokley, 1999). This phenomenon may be more
pronounced in ath-
letic endeavors, based on the structure of sport. Even though
HBCUs are
characterized by greater numbers of Black coaches and
administrators,
African American student-athletes are socialized from an early
age in a
system of sport that is coached and governed almost entirely by
White
males (Lapchick, 2008), potentially influencing an ideology that
values
working within mainstream structures.
To the second aim, we hypothesized that football players at
HBCUs
would report comparatively higher levels of racial Centrality
and Nationalist
Ideology. This hypothesis was generated due to HBCUs
curricula that
include a greater integration of Black culture and history than

PWIs, high-
lighting the importance and uniqueness of being Black (Bennett
& xie,
2000). Conversely, we also hypothesized that football players at
PWIs
would report higher levels of Athletic Identity and
Assimilationist Ideology,
along with lower levels of Public Regard. In a campus
environment where
the alienation and isolation of African American football
players is exacer-
bated by perceptions that they are only on campus because of
their athletic
skills (Hyatt, 2003), these student-athletes may be more acutely
aware of
the low regard society has for African Americans, and they may
feel forced
to adopt assimilationist views that highlight their athletic
prowess in order
to fit in and survive (Cokley, 1999; Feagin, Vera, & Imani,
1996).
This study intended to provide a description of African
American
student-athletes at both institution types. This study did not
intend to pre-
dict racial or athletic identities based solely on choice of
institution type,

because this cross-sectional design did not allow us to
differentiate between
self-selection processes prior to attending college and
socialization pro-
cesses that are enacted while students are attending their
respective institu-
tion. The hypotheses for this study were generated based on
characteristics
of each respective institution type and the authors’ expectations
of how
these racial and athletic identities may be expressed among
football players
at each institution type.
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE
Participants in this study were 163 African American football
players
from five different colleges in the midwest and Southeast that
compete at
the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division
I-FCS and
II levels. There are no HBCUs that participate in intercollegiate
football at
the NCAA Division I-FCS level, so PWIs that also competed at
Division
I-FCS and II levels were chosen for this study. This decision
represented an
attempt to include student-athletes who may have been recruited
to play
and possibly receive an athletic scholarship from comparable
athletically
competitive institutions, both HBCUs and PWIs. Eighty-two
players

attended one of three HBCUs that participated in the study, and
81 players
attended one of two PWIs that participated in the study. All five
universities
have the ability to provide athletic scholarships to their players,
and there
were no significant differences among institutions in percentage
of players
receiving scholarships. The majority (74%) of participants in
this study
received an athletic scholarship. The average age of the student-
athlete in
this study was 19.7 years (SD = 1.52), and 41% of the student-
athletes were
freshmen, 21% sophomores, 21% juniors, and 17% seniors. The
sample
had an average college GPA of 2.5 (SD = 0.45) and an average
high school
GPA of 2.8 (SD = 1.21).
After receiving institutional review board approval, the
investigators
contacted coaches and university administrators who agreed to
extend vol-
untary participation requests to their players. Instructions and
consent
forms were given to the players, who filled out survey packets
during posi-
tion meetings and other team functions outside of the classroom
setting.

HBCU AND PWI 11
The survey packet included mIBI (Sellers, Smith, et al., 1998),
Athletic
Identity measurement Scale (AImS; Brewer et al., 1993),
Student
Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ; Baker & Siryk,
1989), and a
demographic sheet that elicited information on age, scholarship
status, year
in school, high school and college GPA, and race(s) with which
the student-
athlete identified. The survey packet also included explicit
instructions for
players to either fill out or skip certain sections based on their
self-
identified race. In order to avoid alienating any players based
on race, every
player had the opportunity to fill out a survey. Players who did
not self-
identify their race as Black filled out different sections of the
survey that
were to be used in a related study.
mEASURES
Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity. The mIBI
(Sellers, Smith,
et al., 1998) is a 56-item self-report instrument based on the
mmRI (Sellers
et al., 1997). The mIBI employs a 7-point Likert-type scale
ranging from 1
= strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. The mIBI measures
the stable

dimensions of racial identity along three scales: Centrality,
Regard, and
Ideology. Centrality has no separate subscales and constitutes
the first of
the seven mIBI scales, Regard contains two subscales (i.e.,
Public Regard
and Private Regard), and Ideology comprises four subscales
(i.e.,
Assimilationist, Humanist, Nationalist, and minority), thus
producing a
total of seven scales. Cokley and Helm (2001) reported a range
of
Cronbach’s alphas from .70 to .85 on all mIBI scales in a
sample of stu-
dents from both PWIs and HBCUs. In the current study,
Cronbach’s alphas
were found in the range of .68 to .76, which is consistent with
prior research
(Cokley & Helm, 2001; Sellers, Chavous et al., 1998). The mIBI
was
chosen based on the potential compatibility between Athletic
Identity and
the mIBI’s Centrality scale. These variables have the potential
to be rele-
vant indicators of the importance and salience of each
respective aspect of
identity that exists in this specific population. In a previous
study, Jackson,
Keiper, Brown, Brown, and manuel (2002) did not find a
relationship
between centrality and athletic identity, but they used a single
item to rep-
resent racial centrality. This study hopes to utilize the mIBI as a
more
comprehensive assessment of racial identity as it relates to
athletic identity.

Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. The AImS (Brewer et al.,
1993) is
a 7-item self-report instrument that employs a 7-point Likert-
type scale
with possible responses ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7
= strongly
agree. Items such as “I consider myself an athlete” and “Sport is
the most
important part of my life” serve the AImS’ purpose of
measuring the
strength and exclusivity of identification with the athlete role.
Cronbach’s
alpha in this study was .76, comparable with the range of .80 to
.93 found
in a review of the literature on athletic identity (martin, Eklund,
& mushett,
1997). Support for construct validity of the AImS is found in
the statisti-
cally significant differences in AImS scores across levels of
athletic par-
ticipation. As levels of competitive athletic activity increased,
so too have
AImS scores. Nonathletes attained a significantly lower mean
AImS score
when compared with the scores of NCAA Division I athletes
(Brewer et al.,

1993; Cornelius, 1995). Furthermore, Brewer et al. (1993)
reported conver-
gent validity by finding statistically significant correlations
among the
AImS and instruments assessing both competitiveness and
importance of
sport competence.
Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. The Social
Adjustment
and Institutional Attachment scales from the SACQ (Baker &
Siryk, 1989)
were used to assess some of the specific experiences of African
American
student-athletes (Hyatt, 2003). The SACQ is a self-report
instrument that
employs a 9-point Likert-type scale with possible responses
ranging from
1 = applies very closely to me to 9 = doesn’t apply to me at all.
The Social
Adjustment scale is designed to assess the student’s success in
coping with
the interpersonal-societal demands inherent in the college
experience. The
Institutional Attachment scale is designed to explore the
student’s feelings
about being in college in general (i.e., commitment to
educational goals) as
well as how he feels about the specific college he is attending.
In their
review of the literature, Dahmus and Bernardin (1992)
concluded that the
SACQ has shown good internal consistency in studies, with
coefficient
alphas ranging from .83 to .91 for the Social Adjustment
subscale and from

.85 to .91 for the Institutional Attachment subscale. In this
study, Cronbach’s
alphas were .76 for Social Adjustment and .77 for Institutional
Attachment.
Construct validity for the SACQ has been evidenced by the
relationship
between SACQ scales and independent real-life outcomes and
behaviors.
Baker and Siryk (1989) reported a statistically significant
relationship (r =
.47; p < .01) between the Social Adjustment subscale and
amount of extra-
curricular activity among college students. Statistically
significant (p < .01)
negative correlations ranging from -.27 to -.41 were also found
between
the Institutional Attachment subscale and attrition (Dahmus &
Bernardin,
1992).
HBCU AND PWI 13
RESULTS
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IDENTITY VARIABLES AND
COLLEGE ADJUSTmENT
Descriptive statistics for the major variables are presented in
Table 1.

The two outcome variables (i.e., Social Adjustment and
Institutional
Attachment) were significantly correlated with Athletic Identity
and a num-
ber of the racial identity variables. In order to assess the
relationship
between college adjustment and the athletic and racial identity
variables,
two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted on
the entire
sample, one for Social Adjustment and one for Institutional
Attachment.
Institution type (i.e., PWIs and HBCUs) and year in school were
entered in
the first step of each equation, and the athletic and racial
identity variables
that were statistically significantly correlated with the outcome
variables
were entered into the second step of the hierarchical regression
analyses.
Because of the ratio of potential predictor variables relative to
sample size,
this method of selection of predictor variables was also
influenced by
efforts to conserve statistical power.
For Social Adjustment, neither of the demographic variables
were sig-
nificant predictors in the first step, and only Public Regard
emerged as a
significant predictor (b = -.61) in the second step. The athletic
and racial
TABLE 1
Correlations, Means, and Standard Deviations for

Predictor and Outcome Variables
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. AImS
2. CENT .09
3. PriReg .33** .44**
4. PubReg .24** -.13 .13
5. ASS .43** .26** .53** .21**
6. NAT .22** .12 -.11 .14 .10
7. mIN .46** .08 .33** .26** .64** .31**
8. HUm .24** .24** .48** .13 .67** .01 .58**
9. SocAdj -.21** .03 -.02 -.31** -.20* -.14 -.23** -.05
10. InstAtt -.20* .11 .12 -.27** -.04 -.26** -.21* .14 .70**
M 37.85 37.56 36.08 24.06 45.29 36.55 42.62 45.23 86.79 66.19
SD 7.31 5.99 5.72 4.86 7.81 8.28 7.43 7.71 12.29 13.31
NOTE: AImS = Athletic Identity; CENT = Centrality; PriReg =
Private Regard; PubReg = Public Regard;
ASS = Assimilationist; NAT = Nationalist; mIN = minority;
HUm = Humanist; SocAdj = Social
Adjustment; InstAtt = Institutional Attachment.
*p < .05. **p < .01.
identity variables, along with the demographic variables,
accounted for
14% of the variance in Social Adjustment. For Institutional
Attachment,

year in school was a significant predictor (b = 2.53) in the first
step. When
the athletic and racial identity variables were added to the
model, 20% of
the variance in Institutional Attachment was explained. Year in
school (b =
2.55), Public Regard (b = -.50), and Nationalist Ideology (b = -
.35)
emerged as statistically significant predictors of Institutional
Attachment
(see Table 2).
DIFFERENCES IN INSTITUTION TYPE
In order to determine the relationship between institution type
and the
racial and athletic identity variables, a multivariate analysis of
variance
(mANOVA) was conducted using the predictor variables of
institution type
(i.e., HBCUs and PWIs) and year in school (i.e., freshman,
sophomore,
junior, and senior). These categorical predictor variables were
evaluated to
determine their relationship to the continuous outcome variables
of athletic
identity and racial identity.
The results of the mANOVA indicate statistically significant
multivariate
effects. With Wilks’s lambda criteria, the overall main effect of
institution type,
F(8, 148) = 2.80, h2p = .13, p = .006; year in school, F(24, 430)
= 1.95, h
2

p = .10,
p = .005; and the overall interaction effect between institution
type and year in
TABLE 2
Results of Hierarchical Regression Models for
Institutional Attachment and Social Adjustment
Model 1: Social Adjustment Model 2: Institutional Attachment
Step and Variable B SE B b B SE B b
Step 1
Institution type .18 2.11 .01 2.84 2.20 .11
Year 1.05 .92 .10 2.53** .96 .22
Step 2
Institution type -.23 2.17 -.01 1.99 2.21 .08
Year .50 .93 .05 2.55** .95 .22
Athletic Identity -.14 .16 -.08 -.22 .16 -.12
Public Regard -.61** .22 -.24 -.50* .22 -.19
Assimilationist -.13 .16 -.08 .29 .17 -.17
Nationalist -.14 .13 -.09 -.35* .14 -.21
minority -.11 .18 -.06 -.28 .19 -.15
R2 .14** .20***
DR2 .13 .15
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

HBCU AND PWI 15
school, F(24, 430) = 1.80, h2p = .01, p = .012; were statistically
significant.
Follow-up univariate analyses revealed a significant
institutional-type dif-
ference on Athletic Identity, F(1, 155) = 5.12, h2p = .03, p =
.025; and
Nationalist Ideology F(1, 155) = 7.66, h2p = .05, p = .006.
Follow-up uni-
variate analyses revealed significant year in school differences
on Centrality
F(3, 155) = 5.03, h2p = .09, p = .002; and Public Regard F(3,
155) = 3.51,
h2p = .06, p =.017. Finally, follow-up univariate analyses
revealed a signifi-
cant difference in the interaction term of year in school by
institution type
on Centrality F(3, 155) = 4.02, h2p = .07, p ≤ .009.
Football players at HBCUs reported lower levels of Athletic
Identity
(M = 36.28; SD = 6.74) than players at PWIs (M = 39.17; SD =
7.66), lower
levels of Private Regard (M = 35.19; SD = 6.26) than players at
PWIs (M =
37.37; SD = 4.96), and higher levels of Nationalist Ideology (M
= 38.02;
SD = 7.47) than those at PWIs (M = 33.69; SD = 8.61). Junior
football play-
ers at both institution types reported lower levels of Centrality
(M = 35.47;
SD = 5.64) than their freshman (M = 37.91; SD = 5.95),
sophomore (M =
39.09; SD = 5.38), and senior (M = 37.32; SD = 6.84)

teammates. Senior
football players at both institution types reported lower levels
of Public
Regard (M = 21.39; SD= 5.47) than their freshman (M = 24.77;
SD = 4.95),
sophomore (M = 24.23; SD = 4.38), and junior (M = 24.76; SD
= 3.79)
teammates. Figure 1 shows the nature of the significant
interaction of year
in school by institution type.
DISCUSSION
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IDENTITY VARIABLES AND
COLLEGE ADJUSTmENT
Preliminary analyses did not yield differences on either of the
college
adjustment variables based on institution type. Comparatively,
football
players at PWIs were reporting that they were adjusting to
college as well
as their peers at HBCUs. However, according to norms of the
SACQ, the
African American football players in this study were in the 35th
percentile
in both Social Adjustment and Institutional Attachment (Baker
& Siyrk,
1989). Thus, although institution type did not contribute any
significant
differences, neither group of student-athletes is adjusting
particularly well
to college, based on SACQ norms.
Our hypothesis that higher levels of Athletic Identity would
contribute

to lower levels of Institutional Attachment was not supported,
nor was our
hypothesis that higher levels of Assimilationist Ideology would
predict
higher levels of Social Adjustment. Year in school emerged as
the strongest
predictor of Institutional Attachment, indicating that the longer
a player
was at his school, the more attached to this particular institution
and to
being in college in general he became. The finding that athletic
identity did
not contribute to lower levels of Institutional Attachment was
interesting,
given the duality of what the Institutional Attachment variable
purports to
assess (i.e., commitment to educational goals and attachment to
particular
institution). Because a salient athletic identity did not have a
negative
impact on Institutional Attachment, this finding may indicate
that intercol-
legiate athletic participation may create a strong sense of school
pride or
attachment to the particular institution that may serve to offset
the poten-
tially negative effect that a salient athletic identity might

otherwise have on
the commitment to educational goals portion (i.e., being in
college in gen-
eral) of Institutional Attachment.
Among the racial identity variables, only Nationalist Ideology
and
Public Regard emerged as significant predictors. Lower levels
of Public
Regard predicted higher levels of both Social Adjustment and
Institutional
Attachment. For African American football players, the ability
to acknowl-
edge that society does not value Black people appears to
contribute to better
adjustment to college. The implications of this finding will be
discussed in
greater detail later in this section. Higher levels of Nationalist
Ideology also
predicted lower levels of Institutional Attachment. Players who
highly
endorsed the uniqueness of being Black and advancing their
community
without the help of White people reported less attachment to
being in col-
lege and at their particular institution. This finding may indicate
the percep-
tion among football players that their present environment does
not support
28
30
32

34
36
38
40
42
Frosh Soph Junior Senior
HBCU
PWI
Figure 1: Centrality Differences Between Institution Types by
Year
HBCU AND PWI 17
this ideological belief system. Cokley (1999) reported that
African American
students, particularly at PWIs, may not want to be perceived as
“militant”
for fear of repercussions from campus administration. For
football players,
this dynamic may involve the perceptions of coaches and
athletic adminis-

trators who may intentionally minimalize and downplay racial
intergroup
differences and diversity among players so as not to interfere
with their
perceptions of team cohesion and winning (Jackson et al.,
2002). This
potential institutional ideological incompatibility might be
intuitive for
student-athletes at PWIs, so further data analyses were
conducted to assess
if there were institutional-type differences in Nationalist
Ideology and other
racial and athletic identity variables.
DIFFERENCES IN INSTITUTION TYPE
Supporting our hypothesis, football players at PWIs reported
significantly
higher levels of Athletic Identity, which indicates that they see
their role of
athlete as more important to them than do players at HBCUs.
Endorsing a
strong athletic identity, particularly in a predominantly White
environment,
may indicate an internalization of the perception that being an
athlete is
highly valuable for African Americans. Although African
American males are
underrepresented in most traditional venues of upward
socioeconomic mobil-
ity, they are significantly overrepresented in sports like football
(Sellers,
Chavous, & Brown, 2002). Additionally, because negative
perceptions of
football players (e.g., only on campus to play football)
paradoxically exist

alongside the accolades and fame that these high-profile
student-athletes
receive for their athletic exploits, a highly salient athletic
identity may indi-
cate that African American football players at PWIs are
subscribing to and/or
internalizing the societal perception of the “archetypal African
American
male football or basketball player” (Simons et al., 2007, p.
267).
Consistent with our hypothesis, African American football
players at
HBCUs reported significantly higher levels of Nationalist
Ideology than
their peers at PWIs, indicating that football players at HBCUs
more strongly
support the uniqueness of being Black. Lower levels of a
Nationalist
Ideology were predictive of higher levels of college adjustment
for all play-
ers in the sample, but this may represent a differential
experiential dynamic
for football players at HBCUs and PWIs. As this study was
intended to be a
cross-sectional descriptive endeavor, future research needs to
focus on
whether student-athletes at HBCUs feel a stronger sense of
freedom to
explore racial ideologies that do not conform with mainstream
White society
or if student-athletes at PWIs feel constrained to explore these
aspects of
their identity while they are immersed in a mainstream White
environment.

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