Effective undergraduate advising is a critical determinant of student success, retention, and career readiness in kinesiology programs. The purpose of this practice-based, applied essay was to present a comprehensive, student-centered framework for academic advising and professional development that guides kinesiology students from matriculation through graduation and into their professional careers. The framework, developed and implemented at Auburn University’s School of Kinesiology, emphasizes intentional advising practices, high-impact educational experiences, collaborative faculty–advisor partnerships, and data-informed decision-making strategies. In this paper, we outline the core components of the advising framework, including early student engagement through learning communities, proactive advising models, curriculum flexibility, career exploration opportunities, and professional school preparation. We provide practical implementation strategies and discuss the broader implications for kinesiology programs seeking to enhance student outcomes, improve retention rates, and strengthen career and graduate school placement success.
Training the next generation of kinesiology researchers occurs largely through the apprenticeship research training model, which relies heavily on mentoring to support student development and success. The purpose of this article is to outline a backward design approach to develop and iteratively improve apprenticeship research training programs through the clarification and alignment of training program learning outcomes, learning assessments, and learning activities. In addition, positive and negative impacts that research mentors can have on students are discussed, and strategies for improving mentoring skills and integrating mentorship ecosystems into training programs to increase access to diverse types of mentoring are presented.
The purpose of this study was to describe the usage of the Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP) over a 36-year period. Little is known about how long-standing psychological instruments have evolved or contributed to scientific literature. We used citation analysis, a bibliometric technique, to code scholarly works that had referenced the original PSPP publication or manual. Google Scholar revealed 2,206 verified citations. Each was coded for country of origin, language, reasons for citation, research population, and instrument version. Results show 14 years of steady growth in citations followed by a rapid global increase from 2004, sustained by translations into 28 languages. The PSPP was administered in half of the citing sources, with children and adolescents being the dominant populations. Other papers referred to the role of the PSPP in self-esteem theory or measurement. This study provides insight into how instrument usage progresses, and implications are drawn for future instrument development.
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine how Harry Frankfurt’s account of agency can clarify commitment in sport, distinguishing it from motivation, preference stability, and narrative self-description. Core elements of Frankfurt’s theory of the will—higher order volitions, identification, and wholeheartedness—are reconstructed and applied to athletic training and performance. Sport is analyzed as a domain that can organize practical reasons, shape life priorities, and stabilize self-understanding through sustained patterns of endorsement. Wholeheartedness is interpreted as the absence of relevant volitional conflict, distinguished from obsession, external compliance, and mere persistence. A central contribution is a typology of fragility in athletic agency—ambivalence, capture, and foreclosure—distinguishing structurally different ways sport commitment becomes brittle or distorted. The framework is positioned against neighboring accounts of motivation, identity, and autonomy, and extended to address how institutional conditions shape higher order volitions. I offer a vocabulary for analyzing when sport becomes meaning-bearing and when commitment becomes distorted.
