Discouraging Truth: Pre-Performance Examinations and Collegiate Student- Athlete Mental Health

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dc.contributor.authorBallowe, Hannah Marieen
dc.contributor.committeechairGerdes, Julie Marieen
dc.contributor.committeememberPender, Kelly Elizabethen
dc.contributor.committeememberWiscomb, Averyen
dc.contributor.departmentEnglishen
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-08T08:00:49Zen
dc.date.available2024-05-08T08:00:49Zen
dc.date.issued2024-05-07en
dc.description.abstractThis study examines how yearly pre-performance examinations (PPEs) for collegiate student-athletes support holistic student-athlete health. Specifically, the study evaluates PPE documents within the ambient environment of intercollegiate athletics and uses ambient rhetoric to demonstrate how PPE documents reify values from the collegiate athletics environment that a student-athlete's physical health and athletic participation is more important than their mental well-being. I argue that the influences of the collegiate athletics environment on the PPE documents inhibits the documents from adequately fulfilling their role of identifying pre-existing health conditions. I highlight three key features of the PPE documents—an underrepresentation of mental health questions, a prioritization of athletic participation, and the use of binary question framing—that do not support student-athlete mental health. These three features on PPE documents discourage student-athletes from being truthful on the documents and guide them to choose between prioritizing their health or their athletics participation. Finally, I connect my scholarship to social justice in technical communication and advocate for the use of ambient rhetoric and the consideration of environment in future rhetoric of health and medicine studies that evaluate institutional medical documents.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralCollegiate student-athletes experience many mental health concerns at higher rates than their non-athlete peers and face unique barriers to treatment because of their status as athletes. Despite the ubiquity of mental health concerns among student-athlete populations, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and participating institutions prioritize athlete physical health over athlete mental health. This is evident on the pre-performance examinations (PPEs) that student-athletes must complete each year to participate in athletics, as these documents emphasize physical health and athletic participation far more than mental health. I argue that the use of a typical medical intake form like a PPE is not a useful tool for identifying mental health concerns in this environment because the documents are associated with contributing to athlete participation and do not emphasize athlete mental health. I evaluate the documents in the context of the collegiate athletics environment and explore how the document features inhibit their ability to support student-athlete mental health.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:40144en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10919/118912en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectmental healthen
dc.subjectathleticsen
dc.subjectenvironmenten
dc.titleDiscouraging Truth: Pre-Performance Examinations and Collegiate Student- Athlete Mental Healthen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineEnglishen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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