A novel investigation of NCAA athletes' psychological skill profiles through a person-centered approach

Psychological skills provide useful information about athletes' competitive levels and athletic successes. However, previous studies on NCAA athletes examined Division I, but not Divisions II and III. Using a person-centered approach, we explored the psychological skill profiles of Division I, II, and III athletes (N = 378; Mage = 19.88), who completed an online survey assessing demographic backgrounds and the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28. Cluster analyses indicated three profiles - Low Psychological Skills, Moderate Psychological Skills, and High Psychological Skills. Comparison of the profile composition indicated a significantly (1) larger female-to-male athlete distribution in the Low Psychological Skills profile (19.0% to 81.0%) than in the Moderate Psychological Skills profiles (40.2% to 59.8%) and the High Psychological Skills profile (41.7% to 58.3%); (2) larger individual-to-team-sports distribution in the Low Psychological Skills profile (41.5% to 58.5%) than in the Moderate Psychological Skills profile (22.6% to 77.4%); and (3) larger nonstarter-to-starter distribution in the Moderate Psychological Skills profile (48.0% to 52.0%) than in the High Psychological Skills profile (27.2% to 72.8%). The profile composition was not significantly different across division. Additionally, the High Psychological Skills profile had a significantly higher average amount of psychological practices than the Low Psychological Skills profile.