College Athletes And Socialization Essay

College Athletes: Socialization, Social Class and Educational Effects

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College Athletes: Socialization, Social Class and Educational Effects
1 Introduction
College athletes comprise the unique part of the college community but their problems often remain underestimated since their success in their sports overshadows difficulties, which they may and do confront in terms of their integration into the college community. In this regard, the social background of college athletes is one of the major challenges for their successful integration because they are from low-income families mainly and a large part of college athletes represents minorities, such as African Americans. As a result, the social background of college athletes is substantially different from that of the majority of college students, who are predominantly white and middle-class. At this point, it is possible to refer to the book Backboard and Blackboards by Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, where the author explore issues that college students confront at college. The authors reveal numerous difficulties and challenges college athletes may confront at college and suggest their explanation of those difficulties. However, the book makes obvious the gap that persists between college athletes and the rest of the college community because of the different social background of college athletes, their different interests and priorities, which make them not only different from other students but also contribute to certain marginalization of college students within their college communities.