Research

Although the body of research on the benefits of campus recreation for student success is growing, studies lack consistency and are primarily shared within the campus recreation field. Our research seeks to contribute to the growing literature connecting recreation participation with student outcomes. We use data-driven statistical approaches, connecting study findings to implications for professionals and campus leaders across colleges and universities.

Ongoing Research Projects

Relationship between campus recreation facility use, academic outcomes

Authors examine differences between facility users and nonusers by pairing facility swipe card data with student records. Statistical analysis includes logistic regression and matching approaches, controlling for student demographics, academic preparedness, academic goals, family characteristics, and various environmental factors.

• The full body of work was published early May 2020 in Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, and Practice. The accepted manuscript version is available on WVU’s Research Repository.
• Check out more on this topic on WVU Wellbeing Wednesday Podcast.

Multi-institutional relationship between campus recreation facility use, academic outcomes

The objective of this project is to assess the relationship between academic success and campus recreation participation controlling for differences in students across multiple institutions.

Previous campus recreation studies lack consistency and robustness, including variable use and statistical design. Also, retention analysis is often either focused on the institutional or student levels. This research compares differences between student users and non-users of campus recreation using a multivariate model of student persistence, controlling for various inputs and environmental conditions. This research specifically seeks to examine the relationship between recreation facility use and first-year student persistence and cumulative GPA. Research can also demonstrate methods to calculate additional revenue from 1-year increase retention and apply a statistical matching approach to move closer to causation and examine the definition of users and non-users. Finally, to increase comparability and reliability of findings, this research focuses on student-level analysis across multiple institutions.

Definition of user/user groups in campus recreation

This project seeks to examine the relationship between different user and use group definitions and estimates of first-year retention, as well as first year cumulative GPA.

• “Who ya callin’ a user?” presented at NIRSA’s Summer of Learning 2020

High school athlete study 

This study seeks to assess the relationship between student persistence, high school sports participation, and collegiate campus recreation participation using multivariate analysis of student level data across multiple institutions to:

• Connect students with relevant resources and support more directly and earlier to increase institutional retention and better build personal connections between students and institutions, most specifically high school athletes who do not participate in intercollegiate athletics; and
• Determine to what extent a relationship exists between student persistence and high school athletes who do not participate in intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation.

Research coordination projects

• Student Retention and First-time College Student’s Involvement in a Wellness Intervention ( Dr. Olfert lab)
• Transition to College and Substance Use Behaviors: The College Student Transition Study ( Dr. Turiano lab)

For more information contact research coordinator Sera Janson Zegre:  Sera.Zegre@mail.wvu.edu