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Twitter, the popular social-media platform, is a staple in intercollegiate athletics. Although it is often regarded merely as a pastime, Twitter boasts advantages and disadvantages to college student athletes and their programs. This is primarily due to the nature of interactions and exchanges that take place between student athletes and the general public, be they fans, critics, or somewhere in between. Using a semistructured protocol, the researchers conducted a 75-min focus-group interview with 7 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I student athletes to examine the psychological impacts of Twitter use. A modified version of consensual qualitative research was used for data analysis. Results indicated that student athletes were heavily influenced and affected by Twitter use across various domains in their lives. Participants reflected on both advantages (e.g., avenue for advocacy and moral support and promoting team cohesion) and disadvantages (e.g., receipt of critical tweets and detrimental performance implications) of using the microblogging platform, thereby corroborating extant literature and providing a more balanced perspective of Twitter’s resulting impact. The researchers explicated practical implications including improved social-media training and the development of best practices to support student athletes in their responsible use of Twitter. Further research is necessary to better understand the differences in experiences of student athletes competing in revenue-generating sports compared with those competing in non-revenue-generating sports.

What are men's perceptions of the most important masculine norms in the United States? And how are their endorsement of these norms associated with their well-being and gender-related outcomes (e.g., sexism)? Guided by the subjective gender norms model (Wong, Ringo Ho, Wang, & Fisher, 2016), this study investigated 463 U.S. men's (M age ϭ 35.14) subjective masculine norms, defined as perceptions of the most important masculine norms in a group or society. The authors had two goals: (a) identify the most prevalent U.S. subjective masculine norms and (b) evaluate the psychometric properties of a U.S. version of the Subjective Masculine Norms Scale (SMNS), which measures the endorsement of subjective masculine norms. Using directed content analysis of participants' qualitative responses, the authors found that the top five most prevalent subjective masculine norms were emotional toughness, providing for family, avoidance of femininity, being a gentleman, and work. Regarding the psychometric properties of the SMNS, a measurement model with two factors corresponding to prescriptive norms (what men should do) and proscriptive norms (what men should not do) best fit the data. The authors also provided convergent, criterion-related, discriminant, and incremental evidence for the SMNS subscales' validity as well as evidence for their internal consistency. In particular, the SMNS subscales were associated with well-being and gender-related outcomes but not with self-deception enhancement and impression management. The authors conclude by highlighting the distinctiveness of subjective masculine norms, offering an empirical approach to assessing masculine norms in a society or group, and proposing interventions for men based on masculine norms. Public Significance StatementTo better understand contemporary U.S. masculine norms, this study investigated men's subjective masculine norms in the United States, defined as perceptions of the most important masculine norms in U.S. society. The top five most prevalent subjective masculine norms were emotional toughness, providing for family, avoidance of femininity, being a gentleman, and work. Men who endorsed subjective masculine norms reported being happier and less lonely, but also more sexist.

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Multiculturalism is a broad term that encapsulates a number of idealistic constructs related to inclusion, understanding the diverse experiences of others, and creating equitable access to resources and opportunity in our society. Social justice activism is a core tenet of multiculturalism. In order to be optimally effective, multiculturalism needs to be an “action word” rather than a passive construct, one that is inextricably linked to the ability to commit to and engage in an agenda of social justice wherein the inclusive ideals of multiculturalism are actively sought out and fought for. One such domain where the constructs of multiculturalism and social action are playing out in real time is within U.S. sport. U.S. athletes across all ranks (i.e., Olympic, professional, college, and youth sports) are actively engaging in social justice activism by using their platforms to advocate for equality and human rights. A recent display of activism that has garnered worldwide attention was the silent protest of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. During the National Football League (NFL) preseason games of the 2016 season, Kaepernick began kneeling during the playing of the U.S. national anthem as a means to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and the killing of African Americans. Since the start of his protest, athletes around the nation and the world have joined the activist–athlete movement, thereby raising awareness of the mistreatment of African Americans within U.S. society. The activist–athlete movement has amassed support and generated momentum, but consulting sport psychology professionals can adopt a more active role to better support athletes, thereby advancing the movement. Consulting sport psychologists can strive to better understand the nature of athlete-activism and aspire to help their athlete clients explore and express their opinions so they can work to effect meaningful societal change, using sport as the vehicle for their message.