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The Effect of a Life Development Intervention on Sports Career Transition Adjustment
Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of a life development intervention on career transition adjustment in retired professional athletes. Intervention (n = 32) and control groups (n = 39) were recruited for this study, both of which contained recently retired male professional soccer players. Data were collected on measures of career termination adjustment and coping with transitions, and the intervention group also participated in a life development intervention package. Results revealed significant post-intervention treatment group differences on career transition adjustment in favor of the life development intervention, while significant within-group differences on career transition adjustment over time were also achieved for the intervention group. Results are discussed in relation to the personal and developmental costs of pursuing performance excellence.
... During their prime, their accomplishments are recognized and celebrated as they stablish what appear to be unattainable physical standards (Silver, 2021). However, the rigorous requirements of top-tier sports can sometimes hinder athletes from exploring diverse interests early in life (Lavallee, 2005;Stambulova et al., 2007;Barker-Ruchti et al., 2019). As a result, many of these athletes often face significant challenges in their post-athletic life, such as finding a new job, seeking social support from trusted individuals, and experiencing social isolation (Lavallee, 2006;Warriner and Lavallee, 2008;Park et al., 2013;Martin et al., 2014). ...
... In contemporary times, this lens has expanded further, considering athletes within the broader background of their cultural and social ecosystems. While life shifts are known stress triggers requiring adaptation (Brissette et al., 2002), the act of leaving a sport is especially transformative and could influence an athlete's psychological well-being (Lavallee, 2005;Park et al., 2013). Notably, top-tier athletes are prone to a spectrum of mental health challenges (Rice et al., 2016), which could appear as anxiety, depression (Gouttebarge et al., 2016;Schuring et al., 2017), or, in severe cases, even lead to suicides (Hong, 2018). ...
... However, it also sheds light on the less-discussed negative perspectives athletes hold regarding organizational support. Similarly, while participants highlighted the importance of pre-retirement planning in hindsight, they also emphasized that high-performance athletes often find it challenging to establish such plans during their active years (Lavallee, 2005;Stambulova et al., 2007;Barker-Ruchti et al., 2019) unless they receive adequate support. These insights resonate with the Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career Transition (Lavallee et al., 2014), which will be elaborated upon in subsequent sections. ...
Objectives
This study explores the experiences of Olympian judokas, examining both their pursuit of excellence to compete at the Olympics and their subsequent transition out of judo. The aim is to offer empirical evidence regarding the challenges they face in realizing their Olympic dreams, and to shed light on the transitional challenges, available resources, and needs they face as they move toward post-athletic lives.
Methods
We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight Olympian judokas: five males and three females, all of whom have retired from competitive judo. These participants are from Portugal ( n = 1), Republic of Korea ( n = 2), and the United Kingdom ( n = 5). We employed thematic analysis, which led to the identification of five main themes: (a) From Dreams to Olympic Reality, (b) Facing the Void: Loss of Goals and Identity, (c) The Crucial Role of Social Support, (d) Dual Aspects of Pre-Retirement Planning, and (e) The Double Edge of Organizational Support.
Findings
The findings highlight the significant challenges faced by Olympian judokas, including goal and identity loss post-retirement, and the need for comprehensive and accessible organizational support, particularly psychological assistance, to assist in their transition to post-athletic life.
Implications
The findings not only enhance our understanding of judokas’ experiences during transition but also offer insights that could guide the development of tailored support programs. It is critical for sport governing bodies and practitioners to apply these insights in creating comprehensive and easily accessible support systems, which will ensure a smoother transition to post-athletic life for high-performance athletes.
... Life transitions in general are considered as stressors requiring adaptation and adjustment (Wheaton 1990), which can influence mental health negatively (Wheaton 1990). Sport career transitions, particularly out of sport, can be a major life change (Lavallee 2005) affecting athletes' mental health (Lavallee and Robinson 2007;Park et al. 2013;). High-performance athletes can be vulnerable to mental health disorders (Rice et al. 2016) and may experience depression and anxiety (Gouttebarge et al. 2015(Gouttebarge et al. , 2016Schuring et al. 2017), leading some to take their lives post-retirement (Coverdale 2020;. ...
... Transitioning out of sport, career termination or retirement, is experienced by all high-performance athletes (Lavallee 2005). Studies of career transition have primarily investigated athletes' retirements ); many athletes struggle to successfully adjust to life after sport with different reasons such as their strong athletic identity, injuries and health issues, and low educational attainment due to heavy commitment to sport during their athletic career (Park et al. 2013). ...
... The authors applied an interview guide to ensure consistency across interviews (Brewster et al. 2015) and to ensure that all interviews addressed core themes identified in the relevant literature (Kvale 1996;Mason 2004). The interview guide was developed from the research questions, literature review, and the two theoretical frameworks (e.g., Grove et al. 1998;Lavallee 2005;Lavallee et al. 2014;Park et al. 2012b;Wylleman et al. 2013). Seven areas were addressed: (1) sports background; (2) experience as high-performance athletes; (3) career management and planning; (4) challenges and barriers to managing finance and financial wellbeing; (5) development of financial literacy and self-management skills; (6) coping skills/strategies and available external support; and (7) adjustments to post-athletic careers and life generally. ...
This paper investigates high-performance athletes’ development of their financial literacy and self-management skills and the related organisational support available to them during their athletic careers. The data were collected from 20 retired high-performance athletes (10 male and 10 female) representing six different countries (Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, and the UK). Thematic analysis was applied to the processing of the data and five themes emerged: (1) Funding battles: financial challenges and misjudgements; (2) Coping Strategies; (3) Support from sponsors, parents, and sport organisations; (4) Development of Financial Literacy; and (5) Life After Sport. The data indicates that athletes experienced financial challenges due to a lack of organisational support, reduced or terminated funding, and limited opportunities to access sponsorship. Typically, athletes developed their financial literacy and self-management skills by ‘self-help’ or ‘trial and error’. The findings contribute to both literature and practice by providing empirical evidence on the coping strategies adopted by athletes in order to overcome financial challenges and on the methods used in order to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills. These findings inform sport organisations and governing bodies to develop support schemes for high-performance athletes as well as deepen our knowledge of athletes’ career development and transitions focusing on the financial aspect.
... O VER THE PAST FEW DECADES, issues surrounding career transition have become an increased topic of investigation within the field of sport psychology (Lavallee, 2005;Stambulova, Stephan & Japhag 2005;Warriner & Lavallee, 2008;Wylleman, Alfermann & Lavallee 2004). The term Athletic Career (Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007) is used to describe an athlete's multi-year sport activity. ...
... Athletic career termination or retirement is, according to Alfermann and Stambulova (2007), the clearest example of a normative and even inevitable transition. Athletes consider themselves retired when they are no longer competing at the level they had once achieved (Lavallee, 2005). In contrast, a non-normative transition is considered to be a transition that does not generally follow any type of plan or schedule and is the result of events that occur in an athlete's life to which she/he responds. ...
... Until approximately 40 years ago, little attention had been given to the well-being of professional athletes by leading professionals and governing bodies (Gordan, 1995). Interest in this area has grown rapidly over the years due in large to a significant increase in the number of elite athletes needing the support and assistance of sport psychologists during transition from sport (Lavallee, 2005). However, to date, research specifically on career-transition in professional football has been extremely limited. ...
Career transition in sport is a rapidly growing area within the field of sport psychology. Interest in this area has been fuelled by the need for an increased number of professional athletes seeking support and assistance during transition from sport. However, whilst research in this field has focused in on a wide range of sports, specific research on retirement in professional football has been limited. Because of this it is argued that current research may fail to consider specific issues associated with the transition from professional football. Therefore, in an attempt to add to the existing body of research, the current study aimed to provide an in-depth insight into how professional footballers understand their ‘lived-world’ during exit from their sport. A total of eight former professional footballers, who were at the time experiencing the possibility of career-transition, were interviewed in two separate focus group discussions. The interviews were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The key findings from the research show that a lack of control over their lives, lack of pre-planning and preparation for retirement as well as support and ability to seek it led professional footballers to experience heightened levels of anxiety, uncertainty and fear for their futures, and an unexpected sense of rejection during career transition. These findings have implications for support organisations and those interested in the life-long welfare of professional footballers. It is proposed that an emphasis on pre-planning and preparation, provisions of support and encouraging help-seeking may aid professional footballers during the process out of their sport.
... There are some studies that have investigated either the perspectives of users (athletes) or practitioners. Lavallee (2005) measured the effect of a life development intervention on sports career transition by delivering a one-on-one psychological intervention to retired male professional footballers. Park et al. (2012) conducted a case study to examine the development of an athlete career transition programme by interviewing six practitioners who were involved in development of a career transition programme from one sport organisation. ...
... The findings in this study may be the first evidence in the literature investigating the awareness of athletes of the programme that have been developed for them with a large sample across the many different countries. There is limited research to evaluate athletes support/career assistance programmes that identify positive aspects and areas for improvement to provide users' insights and implications on the programmes although there were some studies to measure the impact of the programmes on athletes' career transitions and their decision-making process (e.g., Lavallee, 2005;Mateos et al., 2008). It is significant that the findings in this study provide practical implications of the VOA based on the accounts from athletes' hands on experience. ...
... Semi-structured interviews were applied in Study 2 to enable research participants to share their accounts more in detail than observing a given situation (Simons, 2009), which allows researchers to obtain in-depth narratives of each participant. An interview guide was developed based on the literature review (e.g., Lavallee, 2005;Lavallee et al., 2001;Park et al., 2012;Hong & Coffee, 2018) and research questions and applied to each interview to ensure consistency throughout the interviews (Brewster et al., 2015). The interviews were conducted to address the following: (a) sport background, (b) role and responsibility, (c) overall experience of the VOA programme, (d) positive aspects of the VOA programme, (e) lessons learned from the VOA programme, and (f) areas for improvement. ...
Word Count: 9,988 Acknowledgements (*Please note that we present this on the title page rather than on the manuscript as there are many names that might give reviewers an idea on who the authors are.) We would like to thank our participants for taking their time to make this research project possible. We are also grateful to Dr Robin Mitchel, President of Oceania National Olympic committees (ONOC), Mr Ricardo Blas, Research Question: Comprised of two exploratory studies this paper examines the current practice of an athlete support programme that was developed and established in the Pacific Islands, called 'Voices of Athletes (VOA)'. The study aims to explore the perceptions of both users and facilitators into the VOA, to enable the programme to be improved and share its practice with other regions. Research methods: 414 athletes completed an open-ended questionnaire for Study 1 and 122 athletes and support staff members completed a short interview; 14 practitioners of the VOA programme completed an in-depth interview for Study 2. Both deductive and inductive approaches were applied to analyse data. Results and Findings: The findings highlighted the educational and informative features of the programme, which helped athletes to be aware of contemporary social issues, empower themselves, and become a leader in their societies. The potential of the programme to be delivered to young people at school and to function as a framework to develop and implement support schemes/initiatives in other countries was identified. Implications: This exploratory study contributes to the literature by providing live experience of both users and facilitators of an athlete support programme in the Pacific region, considered 'best practice by the IOC. Thus, it is considered as a great addition to the literature related to athlete support programmes and informs sport governing bodies about the current practice in the Pacific region and potential of the VOA to be promoted to other developing countries that have similar cultural context and demands of supporting athletes.
... Skill in financial self-management may be understood as an individual's competence to manage finance and cope with any financial issues based on their life-experience, knowledge, and skills (Hong and Fraser 2021). Life transitions can be stressful, requiring coping and adaptation (Wheaton 1990) and transitions out of sport are a significant life change for high-performance athletes (Lavallee 2005); it has been reported that the mental health of high-performance athletes can be negatively affected by them (Lavallee and Robinson 2007;Park et al. 2013) with accompanying depression and anxiety (Gouttebarge et al. 2015(Gouttebarge et al. , 2016Rice et al. 2016;Schuring et al. 2017). Since athletic careers are relatively short with early retirement often experienced because of career-ending injury and deselection (Lavallee et al. 2014), researchers have emphasised the need for financial literacy and self-management skills (Moolman 2019(Moolman , 2020 as well as pre-retirement planning (Martin et al. 2014;Park et al. 2013). ...
... Since Anderson's (1993) study, Lavallee et al. (2001) have examined an extended range of career assistance programmes in seven different countries. In their systematic review, Park et al. (2013) identified eight relevant studies over more than a decade (Albion 2007;Gilmore 2008;Goddard 2004;Lavallee 2005;Selden 1997;Redmond et al. 2007;Stankovich 1998;Torregrossa et al. 2007). Those studies indicate a positive relationship between athletes' involvement in career assistance programmes and their life skill development; this may affect the quality of career transitions. ...
... This supports arguments in the literature that sport organisations are responsible for assisting high-performance athletes to develop their life skills and balance their athletic and non-athletic careers (Anderson 1993;Anderson and Morris 2000;Hong and Coffee 2018;Park et al. 2013). There clearly are available resources for high-performance athletes to access in order to develop their financial literacy and self-development skills and enable them to better manage their post-athletic careers (Albion 2007;Gilmore 2008;Goddard 2004;Lavallee 2005;Selden 1997;Redmond et al. 2007;Stankovich 1998;Torregrossa et al. 2007). However, it should not be forgotten that some other organisations have not established such support services. ...
This paper reports the results of analysing desk-based data on organisational support for high performance athletes to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills when transitioning out of sport. There are two research questions: (1) Do sport organisations provide support schemes or other interventions such that high-performance athletes develop their financial literacy and self-management skills? and (2) Do sport organisations provide financial support schemes for high-performance athletes’ retirements? If so, what do they involve? Desk-based data collection was applied to 23 sporting organisations; these comprised 21 national organisations representing 19 countries, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Oceanic National Olympic Committee (ONOC). Fifteen of the 23 organisations, representing 14 countries, provided some support or interventions on financial planning and self-management within their career assistance programmes. The findings also indicate that most organisations in 17 different countries did not provide any financial support for athletes’ retirements. While a number of sport organisations have developed appropriate interventions to assist high-performance athletes to develop financial literacy and self-management skills, such schemes appear only to be provided to high-performance athletes who have competed at the highest level e.g., Olympics, world championships, etc. Support for athletes at lower levels should also be developed and delivered by national governments, or by national sport organisations.
... The British Athletes Lifestyle Assessment Needs and Career and Education scale (BAL-ANCE) and the Transition Coping Questionnaire are available to assist athletic health care providers in recognizing an athlete who may be struggling with transitioning out of sport. 104 ...
... 103 Having a life development intervention plan in place may mitigate some of the negative fallout surrounding an early retirement. 104 There is evidence that suggests transitioning out of sport can be effectively managed at the professional and/or national levels. 104,111 Participation in a psychoeducational retirement planning intervention focused on diversifying athletic identity, enhancing coping skills, building social support, and initiating the grief process earlier may create a more positive athletic transition process for the athlete. ...
... 104 There is evidence that suggests transitioning out of sport can be effectively managed at the professional and/or national levels. 104,111 Participation in a psychoeducational retirement planning intervention focused on diversifying athletic identity, enhancing coping skills, building social support, and initiating the grief process earlier may create a more positive athletic transition process for the athlete. 103 ...
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine convened a panel of experts to provide an evidence-based, best practice document to assist sports medicine physicians and other members of the athletic care network with the detection, treatment, and prevention of mental health (MH) issues in competitive athletes. This statement discusses how members of the sports medicine team, including team physicians, athletic trainers, and MH providers, work together in providing comprehensive psychological care to athletes. It specifically addresses psychological factors in athletes including personality issues and the psychological response to injury and illness. The statement also examines the athletic culture and environmental factors that commonly impact MH, including sexuality and gender issues, hazing, bullying, sexual misconduct, and transition from sport. Specific MH disorders in athletes, such as eating disorders/disordered eating, depression and suicide, anxiety and stress, overtraining, sleep disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, are reviewed with a focus on detection, management, the effect on performance, and prevention. This document uses the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy to grade level of evidence.
... Lavallee et al. (2001) conducted a comparative analysis of career assistance programmes in seven countries, including Australia, Canada, and the UK, coinciding with the emergence of research on sport career transition programs. Over a decade later, Park et al. (2013) reviewed eight studies on sport career assistance programmes in their systematic analysis of athletes' career transitions out of sport (Selden 1997, Stankovich 1998, Goddard 2004, Lavallee 2005, Albion 2007, Redmond et al. 2007, Torregrossa et al. 2007, Gilmore 2008. These studies revealed positive correlations between involvement in career assistance programmes and athletes' life skills development, as well as the quality of their career transitions. ...
... These programmes are designed to aid athletes in managing and balancing their athletic careers with non-athletic activities, including dual careers (Stambulova et al. 2021). Given the positive association between CAP engagement and the development of life skills, as well as improved career transitions (Selden 1997, Stankovich 1998, Goddard 2004, Lavallee 2005, Albion 2007, Redmond et al. 2007, Torregrossa et al. 2007, Gilmore 2008, it is essential to recognise the critical role sport organisations play in athletes' development and career transitions. This study highlights the importance of sport organisations' efforts in providing comprehensive support for athletes' holistic development, emphasising the need for continued improvement and expansion of CAPs. ...
This study aims to offer a comprehensive analysis of Career Assistance Programmes (CAPs) available for high-performance athletes across the globe, addressing the current state of resources for their career development and transitional periods. The authors examined 23 sport organisations spanning five continents, focusing on aspects such as CAPs' accessibility, objectives, content, delivery personnel, practitioner training, and self-evaluation methods. Utilising web-based data collection and research tours, the study acquired pertinent information to address the research questions. Deductive content analysis was employed, with the research questions and the Holistic Athlete Career (HAC) model serving as the framework for categorisation. This study offers an in-depth exploration of global CAPs and provide empirical insights into their current practices. The results show resources available to high-performance athletes , while identifying service gaps, necessitating policies to support a wider range of athletes. Notably, advancements have been made in developing training programmes for practitioners; however, the study highlights the need to further investigate the specific competencies that practitioners develop or seek to acquire through such initiatives. It is suggested that sport organisations actively exchange best practices to augment the effectiveness of their CAPs. The study highlights a service gap for athletes not meeting the high-performance threshold for CAP eligibility, limiting access to resources. Consequently, this population faces limited opportunities for career development and may struggle to cope with the challenges stemming from their athletic pursuits. The authors advocate for the expansion of services to address this disparity, ensuring equitable access to resources for athletes at varying performance levels.
... 54). Previous work in professional sports has shown psycho-education interventions focused on increasing athletes' resilience upon their athletic transition diminish the chances of encountering mental health concerns (Knights et al., 2016;Lally, 2007;Lavallee, 2005;Park et al., 2013;Wippert & Wippert, 2008). ...
... Through this analysis it was found that much is known about transitioning collegiate and even professional athletes' experiences, but a gap remains on adopting proactive support practices. Thus, Park et al. (2013) and Lavallee (2005) advocated for curricula to be developed and implemented with collegiate athletes focused on understanding the constructs of athletic identity, developing coping skills, planning for career and athletic retirement, and creating a network of support. Navarro (2014) found through her phenomenological qualitative study of 29 DI collegiate athletes that career planning should occur throughout an athlete's time in school, but is of particular importance during the senior year, as athletes rely heavily on the athletic department for career field preparation. ...
Athletic transition has been explored in sport management and sport psychology literature primarily focusing on transitioning into collegiate athletics, voluntary and involuntary transitions out of collegiate sport, and transitioning out of professional sport. This study compared NCAA Division I and III collegiate athletes’ perceptions regarding the athletic transition process. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to uncover the perceptions and experiences surrounding the transition process into, during, and out of collegiate sport (Lindlof & Taylor, 2019; Schlossberg, 1981). Three themes emerged from the data: Moving In: Compatability, Moving Through: Identity Directly Tied to Sport, and Moving Out: Redefining Oneself. More specifically, the participants explained coaches and proximity to home helped foster a sense of compatability in institution choice. All of the participants believed sport was important to their lives and tied to their current identity. Lastly, participants detailed the upcoming transition out of sport was either an opportunity for growth or accompanied with uncertainty and sadness surrounding this significant life change. These findings highlight the responsibility of intercollegiate athletic departments and institutions to provide assistance in these transitional processes through coach, administrator, and athlete education and programming.
... Tuo tarpu tyrimų, susijusių su ankstyvu išleidimu į pensiją, nėra daug. Paminėtini tyrimai, dėmesį sutelkę į ankstyvą sportininkų (Lavallee 2005) Mokslinėje literatūroje karjeros koncepcija yra analizuojama gana plačiai, tačiau vis dar suprantama skirtingai, todėl analizuojant pareigūnų ir karių antrosios karjeros galimybes, į jas reiktų žvelgti kompleksiškai per psichologijos, socialinės psichologijos, sociologijos, antropologijos, ekonomikos, politikos mokslų, istorijos ir net geografijos mokslų perspektyvas. Apibendrinant įvai-rias nuostatas karjeros atžvilgiu galima teigti, kad karjera yra logiška darbo patirčių seka, susijusi su tuo, kaip sėkmingai individas vertina save pageidaujamoje darbo vietoje. ...
... Likusi subsidijos dalis subsidijos gavėjams išmokama per 5 darbo dienas arba per su darbdaviu suderintą laikotarpį pasirašius darbo vietų steigimo (pritaikymo) darbų atlikimo aktą ir pateikus mokėjimo prašymą su išlaidas pateisinančių dokumentų kopijomis. 96. Darbo birža, gavusi subsidijos gavėjo raštišką pranešimą apie materialinių ir teisinių sąlygų naujoms darbo vietoms sukurti sudarymą, per 3 darbo dienas, dalyvaujant subsidijos gavėjui, patikrina darbo vietas, už subsidiją įsigytų įrengimų, įrangos ir kitų darbo priemonių panaudojimą šiose darbo vietose. ...
Autoriai nagrinėja asmenų, ilgą laiką
tarnavusių uždarose statutinėse organizacijose, integracijos į darbo rinką
problematiką, jų galimybes pradėti naują karjerą. Monografijoje išnagrinėtos
teorines prielaidos, leidžiančios užtikrinti sėkmingą tarnautojų ir karių, išleidžiamų
į ankstyvąją pensiją reintegraciją į darbo rinką. Pateikiama ankstyvojo
išleidimo į pensiją sąvoka ir problematika, analizuojama Lietuvos darbo
rinkos kitimo specifika ir taikomos aktyvios darbo rinkos politikos priemonės.
Įvertinus tai, kad pareigūnų ir karių, išleidžiamų į ankstyvąją pensiją,
situacija yra unikali teisiniu požiūriu, daug dėmesio skiriama pareigūnų ir
karių valstybinių pensijų teisiniam reglamentavimui valstybėje. Pateikiami
karių ir pareigūnų, 2010–2012 m. išleistų į ankstyvąją pensiją, integracijos į
darbo rinką padėties tyrimai, ES valstybių vidaus reikalų ir krašto apsaugos
ministerijų atstovų ekspertinės apklausos rezultatai, kurie pristato ES šalyse
vykdomas politikos priemones ir praktiką integruojant analizuojamą grupę
į darbo rinką.
... Self-care and psychological strategies represent resources within existing athlete transition theory (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994) and are practical interventions (Lavallee, 2005) that can be provided within individual and/or group training sessions. A common fallacy is that all former athletes have a "toolbox" of knowledge on such practices. ...
Transition from professional football life has important implications for the health and well-being of former National Football League (NFL) players. The study purpose was to examine former NFL players’ experiences of transitioning from sport including factors that helped and factors that made transition difficult. This study used a convenience sample of former NFL players drawn from a larger study of health and function. Participants included 1,784 former NFL players, mean age = 52.3 ± 16.3 years, 59% White, and a discontinuation mean of 24.0 ± 15.6 years after leaving the league. Participants responded to open-ended transition questions via mail or electronic questionnaire with responses analyzed using conceptual content analysis. The most frequently reported factors that helped transition included career transition plan/options (48%) and social support (40%). Whereas, structure- (33%) and identity-related (23%) difficulties were reported as factors that made transition difficult. Findings identify areas for targeted interventions to enhance NFL player well-being during transition from sport.
... These attempts have served as valuable milestones in understanding how psychological exploration can impact players' performance and lives (Hirose and Meijen, 2022). Research has also repeatedly shown that a healthy body and mind can influence players' lives after their playing careers (Lavallee, 2005). These findings are relevant not only to professional soccer clubs but also to a wide range of soccer workers, including youth players and referees (Holt et al., 2012;Duncan et al., 2022). ...
This study aims to identify the knowledge structure and research trends of soccer psychology research during the last 33 years (1990–2022). Data were obtained from 1,863 papers from the Web of Science database. The data were collected through keyword text mining and data preprocessing to determine the keywords needed for analysis. Based on the keywords, latent Dirichlet allocation-based topic modeling analysis was performed to analyze the topic distribution of papers and explore research trends by topic area. The topic modeling process included four topic area and fifty topics. The “Coaching Essentials in Football” topic area had the highest frequency, but it was not statistically identified as a trend. However, coaching, including training, is expected to continue to be an important research topic, as it is a key requirement for success in the highly competitive elite football world. Interest in the research field of “Psychological Skills for Performance Development” has waned in recent years. This may be due to the predominance of other subject areas rather than a lack of interest. Various high-tech interventions and problem-solving attempts are being made in this field, providing opportunities for qualitative and quantitative expansion. “Motivation, cognition, and emotion” is a largely underrated subject area in soccer psychology. This could be because survey-based psychological evaluation attempts have decreased as the importance of rapid field application has been emphasized in recent soccer-related studies. However, measuring psychological factors contributes to the study of football psychology through a new methodology and theoretical background. Recognizing the important role of psychological factors in player performance and mental management, as well as presenting new research directions and approaches that can be directly applied to the field, will advance soccer psychology research.
... Multiple studies have explored career planning and preparation over the years. More specifically, research has focused on the main constructs associated with a positive career transition out of sport (Cecić Erpič et al., 2004;Grove et al., 1997;Knights et al., 2019;Lally, 2007;Lavallee, 2005;Lavallee & Robinson, 2007;Park et al., 2013;Stephan, 2003;Torregrosa et al., 2015), the influence of career planning on sporting performance (Lavallee, 2019), the influence of organizational support and dual career on retirement planning (Surujlal, 2016;Tshube & Feltz, 2015), and coping strategies employed by athletes during the pre-and post-retirement periods (Clowes et al., 2015). Few researchers however have addressed the real opportunity athletes have to plan and prepare for their career transition out of sport by accounting for disparities created by the context in which they train and compete (sport environment). ...
This article adopts the perspective of Sen’s capability approach to examine elite athletes’ environment and their capability to plan and prepare a career transition out of sport. Interviews were conducted with 14 elite athletes in Canada and results from the thematic analysis reveal that discrepancies exist in the athletes’ environment. Three types of environments emerged from the findings: enabling, restricting, or hindering athletes’ capabilities to plan and prepare their transition out of sport to a career they value. The difficulties reside more specifically in the possibilities they have to prepare an education path of their choice while being part of the national team. The results highlight that even though support from family and teammates is essential, it is not sufficient, as the support of coaching staff was shown to be crucial. The role of Game Plan advisors varies according to athletes’ type of environment and underline the importance of going beyond their role of individual counseling in certain types of environments.
... Life skills are those skills that help individuals to successfully work in the environment in which they live [11]. According to Gould and Carson [12] life skills are that personal asset that can be developed in the sports arena and transferred in a non-sports setting. ...
Purpose: The main purpose behind the study was to establish the challenges in relation to the acquisition of life skills among university student-athletes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study assessed the extent to which the concern existing resources, facilitators, and trainer attitude influences life skills acquisition among student-athletes. Material: Descriptive survey research design was followed to obtain desirable results. The target population of this study consisted of all those who participated in different sport at the university level of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Amongst them, we selected a representative sample (n=389 fifty 50% of the total population) with the help of a simple random sampling technique. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version, 24 was used to code and analyse the data. The hypotheses were tested by applying statistical tests like Step-wise regression and independents sample t-test. The significance level of 0.05 was fixed to accept or reject the set hypotheses. Results:
... Life skills are those skills that help individuals to successfully work in the environment in which they live [13]. According to Gould and Carson [14] life skills are that personal asset that can be developed in the sports arena and transferred in a non-sports setting. ...
Authors' Contribution: A-Study design; B-Data collection; C-Statistical analysis; D-Manuscript Preparation; E-Funds Collection. Abstract Purpose: It is generally believed that sports can play an important role in developing life skills and positive youth development. The purpose of this study was to determine the views of Gomal University students' athletes on the role that sports played in developing the important life skill of decision making. The time management, planning, dealing with adversity and adapting new situation were taken as decision-making skills. Material: A sample of n=375 (male=334, female=41 completed questionnaires. The researchers collected the required information with the help of self-administered structured questionnaire encompassing the selected variables of the study. The responses were tabulated and analyzed with the help of computer software. Results: The results showed participants attributed a significant role for sports in developing decision-making skills such as time management, planning, dealing with adversity and adapting new situation (603** at 0.01) and significant correlation between sports participation and the development of various decision-making skills among its participants (603** at 0.01). The results indicated that demographic characteristic such as gender, age, and level of sports participation of the athletes brings variations in the mean score of research variables (0.003, 0.004 & 0.001 < 0.05). Conclusions: Results of the study indicated that sports provide an excellent opportunity for students to learn skills that can help them in taking positive as well as effective decision. The present exploration affirmed that students can acquire a) time management skill, b) proper planning, c) dealing with adversity, and d) the ability to adjust in a new situation through active participation in sports activities. However, some demographic characteristics of the sports participants such as gender, sports experience, and format of sports have an influence upon the development of these skills through sports.
... Life skills are those skills that help individuals to successfully work in the environment in which they live [11]. According to Gould and Carson [12] life skills are that personal asset that can be developed in the sports arena and transferred in a non-sports setting. ...
The main purpose behind the study was to establish the challenges in relation to the acquisition of life
skills among university student-athletes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study assessed the extent to which
the concern existing resources, facilitators, and trainer attitude influences life skills acquisition among
student-athletes.
Material: Descriptive survey research design was followed to obtain desirable results. The target population of
this study consisted of all those who participated in different sport at the university level of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Amongst them, we selected a representative sample (n=389 fifty 50% of
the total population) with the help of a simple random sampling technique. The Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS) version, 24 was used to code and analyse the data. The hypotheses were tested by
applying statistical tests like Step-wise regression and independents sample t-test. The significance level
of 0.05 was fixed to accept or reject the set hypotheses.
Results: Findings of the study indicated that existing resources, facilitators, and trainer/coach attitude significantly
influences life skills acquisition among student-athletes (.001, .001 & .000 < .05). The analysed data
revealed no significantly difference regarding extent to which specific challenges such as existing
resources, facilitators, and trainer attitude influences the acquisition of life skills (.500, .133 & .149 > .05).
Conclusions: The findings of the study revealed that all participants have agreed upon the importance of life skills.
Therefore, the life skills course might be considered as an integral part of every educational curriculum
of Pakistan. It is suggested that a minimum of 2 hours per week may be included in the educational
curriculum of each discipline.
Keywords: challenges, perspective, acquisition, life skills, implication, placement, university curriculum
... Predictably, a prominent feature of ALM was the provision of career and education support (i.e., spex education), which is akin to the services offered in other CAPS including the CHAMPS/life skills programme (US; Danish, Petitpas, and Hale 1993), Australia's former ACE programme (Chambers, Gordon, and Morris 2013), and the UK's BALANCE programme (Lavallee 2005). Given Singapore's strong pursuit of academic excellence (Horton 2013), the decision to embed athlete career and education support within ALM (i.e., spex education) is understandable. ...
This investigation explored practitioners’ experiences of providing Athlete Life Management (ALM) as a career assistance support service for Singaporean athletes. The researchers adopted a relativist ontology and constructionist epistemology to frame the study, and an interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology. The five participants (four female, one male) were from various Singaporean sporting organisations and were employed as ALM practitioners. Following data analysis, we discovered one superordinate theme: sporting ecosystem. Three higher order themes were also identified within the sporting ecosystem: cultural evolution towards a sporting identity, harmonious practitioner engagement, and practising with care and compassion. Collectively, the results emphasised the organic development of ALM, and that this important athlete support service is situated within Singapore’s dynamic sporting ecosystem. The study adds valuable knowledge to the existing literature on athlete career support by highlighting the practitioners’ experiences within a non-traditional discourse.
... Les entrepreneurs novices émergents sont essentiellement dans une logique de transition de carrière. Ces transitions sont particulièrement propices à susciter des défis d'adaptation de rôles (Brown et al., 2012;Colakoglu, 2011;Lavallee, 2005;Sokol et Louis, 1984) ou d'ajustement des compétences (Jackson, 2010). On note également de nombreux défis d'adaptation aux nouvelles compétences requises pour les personnes qui accèdent nouvellement à des postes de management (Clarke, 2007(Clarke, , 2009Mahlangu et Govender, 2015;Peticca-Harris et McKenna, 2013) ou des défis de construction identitaire associés à la nouvelle carrière (Hoyer et Steyaert, 2015;Williams, 2010). ...
Devenir entrepreneur nécessite une transition de carrière comportant de nombreux aléas. À cet égard, les entrepreneurs émergents doivent composer avec plusieurs défis et identifier des stratégies d'adaptation leur permettant de maintenir un ancrage dans la carrière. Quels sont les défis des entrepreneurs émergents ? Les travaux actuels offrent peu de réponses claires à cette question. Pour y répondre, nous avons réalisé par approche inductive une cartographie des concepts en groupe en mobilisant 72 entrepreneurs émergents pour identifier et regrouper en catégories conceptuelles les différents défis. Une démarche hypothético-déductive a ensuite permis de valider des items et de proposer un outil de mesure afin d'estimer la validité convergente, discriminante et reliée au critère avec un questionnaire distribué auprès de 226 entrepreneurs. Les résultats obtenus mettent en évidence six défis distincts auxquels font face les entrepreneurs émergents : la gestion du développement de l'entreprise, la gestion financière et légale, la gestion de la santé psychologique, la gestion de la carrière entrepreneuriale, la gestion des technologies numériques et la gestion du capital humain. Cette outil contribue à documenter une réalité importante des entrepreneurs émergents et rend ainsi possible des travaux sur les formations et accompagnements susceptibles d'atténuer les impacts de ces défis, tout comme ceux relatifs à la compréhension du rôle des défis dans les choix stratégiques et la performance des PME.
... Several scholars, for example, have found that activism is beneficial not just for society, but also for the activists. First, strengthening other roles besides one's AI facilitates a smoother transition out of sport (e.g., Lavallee, 2005;Smith et al., 2016;Warriner & Lavallee, 2008). Activism also has been specifically connected to greater well-being, positive affect, self-actualization, hope, meaning in life, life satisfaction, flourishing, confidence, and agency (Klar & Kasser, 2009;Rabkin et al., 2018). ...
Many high-profile athletes have engaged in athlete activism and continued to remain successful both in sport and activism. Although several barriers have been documented preventing athletes from engaging in activism (e.g., public criticism, status and job loss, withdrawal of funding, anticipated distress; Cunningham & Regan, 2012), activism itself has also been connected to several positive outcomes (e.g., improved confidence, self-concept, belief in change, agency, life meaning; Klar & Kasser, 2009; Rabkin, McElhiney, Harrington, & Horn, 2018). Indeed, both sport and activism provide opportunities for athlete activists to develop resilience. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between athletic identity (AI), activist identity and commitment (AIC), stress control mindset, and mental toughness. NCAA student-athletes (N = 204) reported low AIC overall. Regression models did not suggest that AI and AIC predict SCM or MT as expected, but correlations did provide evidence that SCM and MT are positively related. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.
... At the peak of their athletic careers, they are admired for achieving seemingly impossible physical standards. However, the extreme demands of high-level sports can limit athletes' development of well-rounded interests at early stages in their lives (Barker-Ruchti, Schubring, Post, & Patterson, 2019;Lavallee, 2005;Stambulova, Stephan, & Jäphag, 2007). Once they retire, high-performance athletes are often pushed to disengage from the world of sport, and many tend to struggle to find new forms of employment (Martin, Fogarty, & Albion, 2013), to find social support and people they can confide in (Lavallee, 2006;Park, Lavallee, & Tod, 2013), and feel abandoned by society (Miller & Kerr, 2002;Warriner & Lavallee, 2008). ...
Self-perceptions about aging have implications for health and well-being; however, less is known about how these perceptions influence adaptation to major life transitions. The goal of this study was to examine how high-performance athletes' perceptions about aging influenced their adaptation to athletic retirement. In-depth interviews conducted with 24 retired Olympic athletes using thematic analysis yielded three key themes: (a) perceptions about aging influenced participants' postretirement exercise habits, (b) perceptions about aging motivated participants to engage in civic activities, and (c) participants who lacked formative perceptions about aging associated their athletic retirement with their own lost sense of purpose. These findings provide evidence that perceptions about aging influence athletes' adaptation to retirement by directing their subsequent engagement in postretirement activities. Furthermore, this research highlights theoretical implications for the literature regarding embodied processes, retirement transitions, role models, and adaptation to new physical states.
... Since its introduction, golf has been regarded as the ultimate status symbol: being able to play golf means that you "ha[ve] made it." 4 The blessing of the bubble economy of the late 1980s and the social status attached to playing golf resulted in an exponential expansion of the golf industry in Japan. 5 The number of rounds played increased from 10 million in 1963 to 102 million in 1992. ...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the patterns of professional career paths of the players of the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Japan (JLPGA) Tour. Using the athletes’ professional career life cycle model as the theoretical framework, this study will analyze the career development of elite players of the JLPGA from their rookie year to the point of retirement. The year of each JLPGA tournament win by selected players will be examined for the players’ entire careers. The players’ money ranking for each year of their careers is also analyzed to determine the stages of the players’ career life cycles. The tournament win span, i.e., the number of years between a player’s first and last JLPGA tournament win, will be computed. The career life cycles of players of different cohorts will be compared to determine whether or not there was any transformation in the structure of career stages of the players over time. The career development patterns of Japanese-born players will be compared with those of the international players of the JLPGA.
... Despite the intensive physicality of sporting life projects, Hadiyan and Cosh (2019) recently noted that considerations of the athlete body have been remarkably absent from athletic retirement research. That is, when retirement challenges are addressed, the questions often revolve around (lack of) career planning, educational qualifications, and transferable/life skills (Erpič, Wylleman, & Zupančič, 2004;Lavallee, 2005;Park et al., 2013). Often the implicit assumption is that retirement involves moving "out" from sport, orienting efforts toward other life domains (e.g., education or work), and finding new social networks outside of sport. ...
Sport provides many youth participants with a central life project, and yet very few eventually fulfill their athletic dreams, which may lead them to disengage from sport entirely. Many studies have explored the processes of athletic retirement, but little is known about how youth athletes actually reconstruct their relationship with sport and embodiment postretirement. The authors explored these issues in the story of “Pilvi,” a Finnish alpine skier who disengaged from sport in her late adolescence. Employing an existential-phenomenological approach, they conducted six low-structured interviews with Pilvi, combined with visual methods, and identified key themes relating to the body, space, culture, and time. Their findings highlight the difficulty of building a new relationship with sport and the often restrictive cultural horizons of sport and exercise culture that limit the “possible selves.” The authors discuss the significant implications for applied practitioners helping youth athletes and effectively supporting them in leaving their sport.
... Among the theoretical frameworks, we recommend consideration of the following: the holistic athletic career model (Wylleman, 2019), the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003), the athletic talent development environment model (Henriksen & Stambulova, 2017), the scheme of change for sport psychology practice (Samuel & Tenenbaum, 2011), and the integrated career change and transition framework . Useful applied frameworks and strategies include, but are not limited to: mindfulness-acceptance-commitment therapy (e.g., Moore, 2012), "values compass" approach (Henriksen, 2019), existential psychology approaches (e.g., Nesti & Ronkainen, 2020), creating positive narrative resources about successful coping with C-19 barrier (e.g., Carless & Douglass, 2008), life skills development approaches (e.g., Lavallee, 2005), the "sport census" tool (Lavallee et al., 2020), the mobilisation model of counselling athletes in crisis-transitions (Stambulova, 2011), and the five-step career planning strategy (Stambulova, 2010). 6. Intra-and interdisciplinary collaboration between experts in Olympic/Paralympic support teams (e.g., SPPs, mental health experts, nutritionists, medical staff) is a key condition for coordinated efforts in helping athletes to deal with C-19 Wylleman, 2019b). ...
Our aim in this invited commentary is to stimulate discussion among sport psychology researchers and practitioners regarding the unique developmental challenges and possibilities that Olympic and Paralympic athletes are undergoing during their final – extended year of the Tokyo 2020 quadrenium. We begin the commentary with COVID-19 pandemic (C-19) context setting, proceed with discussing transitional and holistic perspectives on athletes’ Olympic/Paralympic journey, outline three potential pathway scenarios and “C-19 as a possibility-provider” coping (meta-) scenario for Olympic/Paralympic athletes, and finalise our commentary with a summary of messages intended to invite further discussion and collaboration.
... Life development interventions are useful to help athletes transition away from their sports careers, particularly interventions including support strategies and personal assessments (Lavallee, 2005). These elements have been shown to help student-athletes tap into their internal resources to aid in their adaptation to life after sports (Stokowski, Paule-Koba, et al., 2019). ...
... For instance, former elite male football players have been reported to encounter problematic issues regarding the re-negotiation or (re)creation of their identities after having been heavily socialised to football's cultural and athletic norms (Crocket, 2014;Jones & Denison, 2017). The onset of athletic retirement can also leave athletes with feelings of injustice and social exclusion (McKenna & Thomas, 2007) due to their strong attachment and self-identification with their sporting role (Lavallee, 2005), and through embodiment of their sport's cultural values (McKenna & Thomas, 2007). When individuals maintain a "strong and exclusive athletic identity up to the point of retirement," the likelihood of experiencing transitional difficulties upon exiting an athletic career is increased (Grove et al., 1997, p. 198). ...
There has been a growing trend of elite athletes being fast-tracked into post-athletic high-performance coaching roles in association football and rugby union in England and Wales. This has been facilitated by an increase in bespoke and condensed formal coach education courses that are designed to accelerate current and/or former elite athletes in attaining their coaching accreditation. Hitherto, however, the individual lived experiences of former athletes on this career trajectory during their transition to coaching remains under-investigated. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to analyse how elite male association football and rugby union athletes based in England and Wales (re)created, re-negotiated or transformed their identities when negotiating a fast-tracked career pathway into a post-athletic high-performance coaching role. Fifteen male rugby union (n = 10) and association football (n = 5) athletes were interviewed on two separate occasions over twelve months. Interviews coincided with the start and end dates of the level three coach education course which they were concurrently enrolled on. Interviews focused upon how they (re)created their professional identities upon negotiating the career transition into a post-athletic high-performance coaching role. Data were critically theorised against sociological concepts associated with the theoretical frameworks of Bourdieu, Goffman and Foucault. Results identified how the development of a coaching identity was articulated through the need to define a ‘coaching philosophy’. Upholding a coach identity in an ‘honest’ disposition so athlete to coach respect could be best attained was expressed by all participants and contrasted with Goffman’s concepts of front and backstage impression management. Self-reflexive practices of Foucault’s askesis were engaged to varying levels to create a coach identity. In three cases this resulted in participants' contestation of their respective club’s identity/culture and losing employment as a coach. Finally, recommendations on how coach education structures can further support these coaches in their career transitions are made.
... An inevitable reality that all professional athletes have to face is retirement from competitive environments (Fortunato & Marchant, 1999) and in some instances from sport participation as such (Lavallee, 2005). Unlike traditional retirements which come after long periods of time, accompanied by many years of work experience, retirement from competitive sport occurs at an relatively early age, after a short career span. ...
Retirement from playing professional sport is an inevitable outcome experienced by professional soccer players due to their limited time span within competitive environments. Preparing for retirement may unexpectedly occur (sometimes without warning, e.g., due to injuries) and may pose challenges for players. This study is an attempt to ascertain whether there are any significant differences in retirement planning between South African and Polish professional soccer players. The study is embedded within a quantitative research paradigm in order to discern such differences. Descriptive statistics were used to report on the demographic profile of the sample and t-tests were computed to account for the differences in retirement planning practices between professional soccer players in these two countries. The results of the study reveal that differences do exist in the retirement planning of professional Polish and South African soccer players. Based on the results of the study it is recommended that athletes should be aware of the type of support they will get from their organisations and plan for their retirement accordingly. The respective soccer clubs should also play a greater role in ensuring they support their players adequately and prepare them for a more stable future. Professional soccer players, particularly South African ones, should attend workshops and information sessions on retirement planning so that they can be better prepared for retirement. JEL Classification: L83, Z2
... Life skills are those skills that help individuals to successfully work in the environment in which they live [11]. According to Gould and Carson [12] life skills are that personal asset that can be developed in the sports arena and transferred in a non-sports setting. ...
... Competing at national and international levels is a glamorous profession -however, this glamour is merely transitory. Before, during or after reaching the apex of their achievements, athletes have to end their career (on career termination see also Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2004;Cecic Erpic, Wylleman, & Zupnacic, 2004;Grove, Lavallee, Gordon, & Harvey, 1998;Lavallee, 2005;Lavallee & Robinson, 2007;Sinclair & Orlick, 1993;Stambulova, Stephan, & Japhag, 2007;Stephan, Torregrosa, & Sanchez, 2007;Taylor & Ogilvie, 2001;Wylleman, Alfermann, & Lavallee, 2004, Cecic Erpic et al., 2004Wylleman et al., 2004, Wippert, 2008. Few athletes cope with this transition in a resolute manner that coincides with future life plans. ...
... Life skills are those skills that help individuals to successfully work in the environment in which they live [11]. According to Gould and Carson [12] life skills are that personal asset that can be developed in the sports arena and transferred in a non-sports setting. ...
Background and Study Aim: The main purpose behind the study was to establish the challenges in relation to the acquisition of life skills among university student-athletes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study assessed the extent to which the concern existing resources, facilitators, and trainer attitude influences life skills acquisition among student-athletes.
Material and Methods: Descriptive survey research design was followed to obtain desirable results. The target population of this study consisted of all those who participated in different sport at the university level of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Amongst them, we selected a representative sample (n=389 fifty 50% of the total population) with the help of a simple random sampling technique. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version, 24 was used to code and analyse the data. The hypotheses were tested by applying statistical tests like Step-wise regression and independents sample t-test. The significance level of 0.05 was fixed to accept or reject the set hypotheses.
Results: Findings of the study indicated that existing resources, facilitators, and trainer/coach attitude significantly influences life skills acquisition among student-athletes (.001, .001 & .000 < .05). The analysed data revealed no significantly difference regarding extent to which specific challenges such as existing resources, facilitators, and trainer attitude influences the acquisition of life skills (.500, .133 & .149 > .05).
Conclusions: The findings of the study revealed that all participants have agreed upon the importance of life skills. Therefore, the life skills course might be considered as an integral part of every educational curriculum of Pakistan. It is suggested that a minimum of 2 hours per week may be included in the educational curriculum of each discipline.
... Researchers should strive to further investigate the relationships between athlete retirement and variables such as athletic identity (Lally, 2007;Lavallee & Robinson, 2007) and career transition interventions (Lavallee, 2005). Further, there are emotional, psychological, physical, and social variables to be considered that likely play a role in athletes' retirement experiences. ...
Statistics indicate that the overwhelming majority of NCAA Division I college athletes will not continue in their sport professionally (NCAA, 2019). Therefore, there is a need to develop a deeper understanding of the variables that influence college athletes’ psychological health and well-being as they transition to retirement. The present study gathered detailed information about 15 former NCAA Division I college athletes’ retirement experiences four to five months post retirement. The findings suggested that the former college athletes had varied retirement experiences ranging from negative to positive. All college athletes who reported having a successful retirement transition described having at least one identified support group, stated they accomplished their athletic goals, indicated they had started pursuing other interests, and identified some positive aspects about their lives since retirement. Alternatively, the college athletes who reported having an unsuccessful retirement transition revealed they did not accomplish most of their athletic goals and struggled to identify any positive aspects about their lives since retirement. The findings of this study highlight the diversity in college athletes’ retirement experiences that can occur. Although there is still much more to ascertain about athlete retirement, this exploration into college athletes’ retirement experiences offers practical implications for athletes, coaches, practitioners, and those who want to provide support for a retiring athlete
This study identifies the topical areas of research that have attempted a psychological approach to soccer research over the last 33 years (1990–2022) and explored the growth and stagnation of the topic as well as research contributions to soccer development. Data were obtained from 1863 papers from the Web of Science database. The data were collected through keyword text mining and data preprocessing to determine the keywords needed for analysis. Based on the keywords, latent Dirichlet allocation-based topic modeling analysis was performed to analyze the topic distribution of papers and explore research trends by topic area. The topic modeling process included four topic area and fifty topics. The “Coaching Essentials in Football” topic area had the highest frequency, but it was not statistically identified as a trend. However, coaching, including training, is expected to continue to be an important research topic, as it is a key requirement for success in the highly competitive elite football world. Interest in the research field of “Psychological Skills for Performance Development” has waned in recent years. This may be due to the predominance of other subject areas rather than a lack of interest. Various high-tech interventions and problem-solving attempts are being made in this field, providing opportunities for qualitative and quantitative expansion. “Motivation, cognition, and emotion” is a largely underrated subject area in soccer psychology. This could be because survey-based psychological evaluation attempts have decreased as the importance of rapid field application has been emphasized in recent soccer-related studies. However, measuring psychological factors contributes to the study of football psychology through a new methodology and theoretical background. Recognizing the important role of psychological factors in player performance and mental management, as well as presenting new research directions and approaches that can be directly applied to the field, will advance soccer psychology research.
Retirement from sport is a life transition that has significant implications for athletes’ physical and mental health, as well as their social and professional development. Although extensive work has been done to review the retirement experiences of athletes, relatively less work has been done to examine and reflect on this expansive body of literature with a pragmatic aim of deciding what needs to happen to better support retiring athletes. This study used scoping review methodology to review current academic reviews, gray literature articles, and support programs on athletic retirement. This review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute reviewer’s manual guide on scoping reviews and adhered to the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Academic articles were identified from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus. Gray literature articles and support programs were identified using advanced Google searches. This study identified 23 academic reviews, 44 gray literature articles, and 15 support programs. Generally, the results suggest that athletic retirement encompasses a drastic shift in identity, a loss of social networks, a lack of career ambitions, and potential risks to physical and mental health. While there was a gap in the academic literature regarding practical strategies to support retiring athletes, the gray literature suggests many creative ideas. Stepwise programming may be beneficial to help athletes: (a) make sense of their athletic experience and see retirement as an ongoing process; (b) develop a well-rounded sense of self identity and understand how to apply their unique skills and strengths in new ways; (3) gain control over their retirement transition by establishing a clear plan and adjusting to new routines and opportunities; and (4) normalize the transition experience by “living in the next” and building confidence in new life directions. Future research may benefit from developing and evaluating more programming to support athletes through the retirement transition.
The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Performance Psychology includes the latest research and applied perspectives from leaders in the field of performance psychology, presenting sport and performance psychology from myriad perspectives. It looks at individual psychological processes in performance such as attention, imagery, superior performance intelligence, motivation, anxiety, confidence, cognition, and emotion. Articles also consider the social psychological processes in performance including leadership, teamwork, coaching, relationships, moral behavior, and gender and cultural issues. The book further examines human development issues in performance, such as the development of talent and expertise, positive youth development, the role of the family, the end of involvement transitions, and both youth and masters-level sport and physical activity programs. Finally, the text looks at interventions in sport and performance psychology and counseling of performers in distress including such important issues for all performers as: appearance- and performance-enhancing drug use, injuries, managing pain, eating and weight issues, burnout, and the role of physical activity in maintaining health. The articles collected here also cover the history of sport and performance psychology; the scope and nature of the field; ethical issues in sport and performance psychology; performance psychology in the performing arts and other non-sporting fields; perfectionism and performance; the role of the performance coach and of the sport psychologist with a coach and team; supervision; and a look ahead to the future of the field.
Following highly publicized stories of student-athletes' struggles with mental health, the spotlight on mental health and well-being in this special issue coincides with a broader growing concern for the long-term impact of competitive sport participation on student-athlete health and wellness. The end of a competitive sport career represents a potentially vulnerable life transition. As demonstrated in the literature, the unique aspects of elite sport culture shape student-athletes' perceptions of their identity, health, and health behaviors, which have implications for how student-athletes navigate their health and well-being as they transition away from the embedded healthcare structure inherent to elite sport. Given evidence indicating that student-athletes may face mental and physical health concerns after retirement from sports, targeted transitional strategies are needed to provide patient-centered care in this population. In this article, we briefly summarize current understandings of sport transition and highlight some key findings from studies conducted by the contributing authors' research groups exploring the impact of sport career transitions on student-athlete well-being. We also reflect on limitations of the existing research and transition models and, in turn, propose potential directions for adopting a nuanced and multidimensional framework to explore interconnected transition domains. We conclude by offering recommendations for sports medicine professionals to consider in future research, programming, and policies to promote student-athletes' holistic well-being through this critical transition.
The aims of the present study were to examine roles and influences of Korean and Irish athletes’ entourages (i.e. people associated with the athlete who promote their sporting career) in the process of athletes’ career transitions. Both Olympians (N=4) and their entourages (N=7) from the Republic of Ireland and South Korea were invited to the study. Data were collected through individual interviews and analysed via thematic analysis. The findings indicated that athletes had a low degree of readiness for retirement and had relatively small social support networks. The findings also revealed that Ireland and Korea have different sport contexts and the existence of the support programme influenced athletes’ career transition experiences.
This study presents qualitative data on the retirement experiences of retired professional ice hockey players and the relationship of these experiences to self-reported depressive symptoms and measures of athletic identity. Data were obtained from an online survey sent to retired professional hockey players within the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) database. A total of 213 retired players completed the qualitative section of the survey and were included in the study. Former players expressed an array of responses to questions about the best and most difficult parts of their athletic retirement experiences, and what they believe would help future generations of retiring hockey players. Within these responses, there were two distinct patterns of identity-based challenges among depressed former players. One subset of depressed former players, captured by our proposed term athletic identity flight, scored lower in athletic identity, and emphasized positive aspects of retirement related to “building a new identity.” A second subset of depressed former players, who we described with the term athletic identity gripping, noted an identity crisis upon retiring and retained a strong athletic identity post-career. Non-depressed former players in our sample were more likely to emphasize the importance of career support to help future retiring hockey players, whereas depressed former players emphasized the importance of mental health support. Our findings may inform future preventative interventions to assist retiring hockey players in their end-of-athletic-career transition and suggest the value of tailoring interventions based on the strength of athletic identity and the presence of depressive symptoms.
Lay summary: Retired professional ice hockey players with self-reported depression symptoms experienced two distinct identity challenges when transitioning out of sport. Some appeared to actively distance themselves from their former athletic identity (athletic identity flight). Others experienced an identity crisis and appeared to maintain their athletic identity over time (athletic identity gripping).
Implications for practice: Based on both quantitative and qualitative data analysis, results suggest that athletic identity is a factor to consider when tailoring interventions for professional hockey players transitioning to athletic retirement. Interventions may vary based on relationship with athletic identity during the transition; some will experience an “identity crisis” and attempt to hold onto their athletic identity, which may be a risk factor for long-term depressive symptoms. Others may actively distance themselves from their athletic identity during the transition, possibly due to emotional pain associated with the athlete role.
Depending on the presence of depressive symptoms, retiring players may have different intervention needs to assist with athletic retirement. Non-depressed players may benefit from practical support, such as planning their next career. Depressed players may benefit more from mental health outreach. Aligned with duty of care principles, results indicate a need for screening retiring athletes to identify those at risk for depression.
The primary purpose of this case study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a new workshop-based intervention using the five-step career planning and reflect on feedback from participants ( n = 17) with the aim of improving the intervention’s content and structure to apply it to a wider population of higher education students, including student athletes. The workshop-based intervention aimed to provide participants with opportunities to reflect on career planning and mapping while reviewing their past, present, and future in terms of both sports careers and life, generally. We provide our reflections for both applied researchers and practitioners on our experience of piloting the intervention. Semistructured interview data were collected from the participants. Analysis revealed that the workshop afforded participants with opportunities to reflect on their present and future careers. The participants also provided recommendations on how to improve future workshops. Reflections on these recommendations and on the workshop (development, implementation, and evaluation) are provided.
p>This research focuses on the career transition experiences of eight elite athletes in the United Kingdom. It seeks to better understand what is happening in the transition process and why some athletes experience difficulties with career transitions be these sport-related or non-sport transitions. Research on career transitions in sport has tended to focus on the transition of retirement which accounts for a number of transitions such as de-selection, injury and burnout. Such research is narrow in its focus. This work seeks to move beyond these limited frameworks. A biography methodology was utilised as an approach particularly well suited to gaining a closely textured account of the athletes’ transition experiences and for interpreting data generated by the life story interviews.
Findings reveal five major factors affecting career transitions in sport: 1) athlete-coach relationship, 2) family support, 3) transition duration, timing and multiplicity, 4) skill transfer and transition familiarity, and 5) athlete burnout. It is argued these factors affect the athletes’ sense of athletic self through a process of identity engulfment and/or identity evolvement. The types of transitions, factors affecting transitions and identity development are captured in a system-based approach adapted from Stambulova’s (1998) perspective of a sport career. In doing so, an alternative perspective of career transitions in sport is presented, one that accepts the dynamic interplay of a number of factors affecting the athlete’s perception of transitions and subsequent identity development and adaptation. The system-based approach provides the flexibility to analyse career transitions in sport from the athlete’s perspective rather than through a rigid model based on the generalisations of a number of athlete experiences.</p
Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a model of sport retirement management. Methodology: This study has an exploratory and applied nature, a participatory and constructivist paradigm, and an inductive approach that has been done qualitatively with thematic analysis method. The study participants consisted of retired athletes and sports experts. They were selected based on a combination of Snowball, Purposive, and Criterion sampling methods. Semi-structured interview were used for data gathering and continued until theoretical saturation. A total of 15 interviews (11 interviews with retired athletes and 4 interviews with sports experts) were conducted and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis method. Results: A total of 78 sub-categories were obtained and were classified into 7 main categories. The main categories formed the two themes of pre-retirement management and post-retirement management. The main categories including Career Planning, Financial Planning, Prevention and Treatment of Sports Injuries, and Athlete Preparation formed the theme of pre-retirement management. The main categories including Supportive Programs, Interventional Programs, and Counselling and Training formed the theme of post-retirement management. Finally, by determining and creating a network between themes and categories and considering the elements that are involved in managing of sport retirement, a model for the sport retirement management was developed. Conclusion: To achieve successful managing of sport retirement, there should be a proper interaction and cooperation between athletes and sports organizations (as the two main elements of sport retirement management) before and after retirement. This model can provide an insight for the two elements and help them to prevent or resolve retirement crisis by interacting with each other and applying effective techniques and strategies.
Transition from professional sport to nonsport endeavors has implications for postcareer health and well-being of athletes. The purpose of the current study was to examine associations among transition-related psychosocial factors and current mental health outcomes in former National Football League (NFL) players. Participants were former NFL players ( n = 1,784; mean age = 52.3 ± 16.3 years) who responded to a questionnaire assessing the nature of their discontinuation from professional football (i.e., any degree of voluntary choice vs. forced discontinuation), prediscontinuation transition planning (yes vs. no), and current symptoms of depression and anxiety. After adjusting for relevant covariates, having an involuntary discontinuation and no transition plan prior to discontinuation were associated with greater depressive and anxiety symptom severity. Autonomy in discontinuation and pretransition planning are important to former NFL football players’ mental health. Increasing autonomy in the discontinuation decision and pretransition planning represent psychoeducational intervention targets for this population.
A number of theories have been used to explain sport retirement. The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze social gerontology theories and their applicability in the field of sport retirement. This review was done during 2019-2020. Four major theories, Activity, Disengagement, Continuity and Social Breakdown theories; are reviewed with empirical results. Results showed the theories have received several criticism that can be classified in three main category: 1) the role of various factors such as resource, environment, personal characteristic and structural factors have been ignored by these theories, 2) these theories have been developed in non-sport setting that may affect their generalization to sports groups, 3) there are stark differences between sport retirement and retirement from the work force which makes it difficult to apply these theories in sport. Generally speaking, none of the theories have been able to completely capture the nature of sport retirement phenomenon and their applicability in sport has been questioned in the literature. Nevertheless, social gerontology theories have had an important role in the development of sport retirement studies and paved the way for developing new theories. So, researchers should increase their information about these theories in order to be more successful in theorizing in sport retirement, which is one the needs of this young discipline.
Retirement from sport has been associated with elevated levels of depression, anxiety and/or body dissatisfaction among athletes. Psychosocial dimensions, such as having reached sport goals and planned for life after sport, may affect how retired athletes’ respond psychologically. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to examine the association between psychosocial aspects of sports transition with body satisfaction, depressive symptoms and, life satisfaction among 217 female former NCAA athletes. Through hierarchical regression analyses, and after controlling for BMI and years since retirement, we determined that athletes who believed they had achieved their sport goals, developed a new life focus after their sport career, had focused on life areas other than just sport while competing, and remained involved in their sport in different ways after retirement reported being more highly satisfied with their lives and their bodies and experiencing fewer depressive symptoms; variance accounted for ranged from 24% to 28% across these outcomes. Athletes’ perceptions of what has occurred in their lives while transitioning from sport may have longstanding effects on their psychological well-being in retirement. Longitudinal methodologies are needed to determine the temporal influence of these psychosocial dimensions.
Ku Ok-hee became the first ever Korean female golfer to win a tournament on the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA Tour) by her victory in the Kibun Ladies Classic on March 31, 1985. Since then, Korean players as a group have amassed 228 victories on the JLPGA Tour by the end of the 2019 season. Although this has been a truly remarkable accomplishment in the history of international sports, no systematic investigation has been conducted thus far about the factors that contributed to the success of Korean women players on the JLPGA Tour. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the rise and fall of the Korean players on the JLPGA Tour from the perspective of their career life cycles. More specifically, this study will apply the career life cycle model to the career pathways of the players on the tour. Each individual player’s career history on the Korean LPGA Tour before the player’s transnational migration to the JLPGA Tour will be examined to ascertain whether or not the player’s pre-migration record is a reliable predictor of the post-migration performance on the JLPGA Tour. The number of tournament victories of each of the Korean players during the player’s entire career on the JLPGA Tour will be reviewed. The all-time history of each individual player’s money ranking on the tour will be investigated for both the active and the retired players. A cohort analysis method is used in investigating the tournament wins and money ranking history of the players by comparing the tournament win records and the all-time money rankings on the basis of the entry cohort to the JLPGA Tour.
Retiring professional athletes face multifaceted changes and potential issues of adjustment, occupational development, and well-being, which raises concerns around the world. The study systematically reviewed the available research investigating professional soccer players’ sport retirement from social sciences perspectives. The literature search in electronic databases and a “snowballing” procedure yielded 17 eligible studies investigating > 2,200 retired professional soccer players. The review followed the PRISMA statement. Nine studies focused on an early transition phase to retirement period; four studies investigated later periods of ten years or longer after retirement. Around half of the players reported involuntary retirement, often associated with declining performance and/or injury. Studies suggest issues of adjustment and mental health during early years after retirement, while psychological issues had apparently declined around 1–2 decades after retirement. However, available studies had notable limitations including lack of evidenced representative samples, report of measures’ reliability, and control for confounders. Furthermore, while theoretical models emphasise a holistic perspective, quantitative research often took a narrow rather than holistic perspective. In summary, available knowledge is fraught with some uncertainty regarding reliability and representativeness of the population of retired professional soccer players. We offer future directions to advance the development of a theory of sport retirement.
One means of understanding athletes’ careers is via the transitions they endure, including that from collegiate to professional athletics. To date, scholars have overlooked this important, capstone transition, as well as the roles of uncertainty management and human interaction in athletes’ adjustment. This study considers the uncertainties and management strategies of fifteen women’s professional golfers on an entry-level tour (Eggland’s Best Golf Tour). Results indicate athletes have uncertainties about their future successes, financial stability, and newfound autonomy. Although athletes expressed concerns for impression management, they ultimately sought to reduce their uncertainties because of the deemed utility of missing information. They mostly relied on covert (e.g., observation of peers) and cognitive strategies during their transitions; although, family and friends were directly sought for generic advice and financial support. These findings add complexity to sport transition literature by placing uncertainty management at the center of career transitions and highlighting the indirect and intracommunicative means of managing uncertainty. Such results may guide the strategic socialization of student-athletes by collegiate and professional associations to prepare them for the transition by addressing future sources of uncertainty and means of addressing said uncertainty.
Ronkainen, N. J., Ryba, T. V., & Allen-Collinson, J. (accepted manuscript). Restoring harmony in the life-world? Identity, learning, and leaving pre-elite sport. The Sport Psychologist.
Abstract:
Sport provides many youth participants with a central life project, and yet very few eventually fulfil their athletic dreams, which may lead them to disengage from sport entirely. Many studies have explored the processes of athletic retirement, but little is known about how youth athletes actually reconstruct their relationship with sport and embodiment post-retirement. We explored these issues in the story of ‘Pilvi’, a Finnish alpine skier who disengaged from sport in her late adolescence. Employing an existential-phenomenological approach, we conducted six low-structured interviews with Pilvi, combined with visual methods, and identified key themes relating to the body, space, culture and time. Our findings highlight the difficulty of building a new relationship with sport and the often restrictive cultural horizons of sport and exercise culture that limit the ‘possible selves’. We discuss the significant implications for applied practitioners helping youth athletes and effectively supporting them in leaving their sport.
Este estudo objetiva verificar os fatores explicativos para a propensão ao endividamento de jogadores profissionais de futebol. Os dados são provenientes de questionários aplicados a 45 jogadores profissionais de futebol, os quais foram analisados por meio da análise fatorial e da regressão quantílica. Os resultados revelam que o exercício do poder e prestígio aumenta a propensão ao endividamento dos respondentes que têm baixa e baixíssima propensão a se endividar e que jogadores ansiosos possuem relação com a propensão ao endividamento elevado. Constatou-se ainda que a atitude com cartão de
crédito está positivamente relacionada com a pouca propensão ao endividamento. As implicações teóricas versam em discutir fatores que são explicativos para a propensão ao endividamento a partir da ótica de um público específico, os jogadores de futebol. No campo prático, demonstra-se que a sensação do poder e prestígio pode ser preditor para o endividamento e que alguns jogadores gozam desta posição. Isso requer equilíbrio e consciência para não gastar em excesso. Deve-se, também, atentar para a ansiedade, uma vez que esta pode conduzir ao endividamento. Alerta-se para a necessidade de gestão das finanças ao longo da carreira ao saber que a atividade finda em período curto, o que este profissional deve pensar de forma contínua no seu pós-carreira.
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine convened a panel of experts to provide an evidence-based, best practices document to assist sports medicine physicians and other members of the athletic care network with the detection, treatment, and prevention of mental health issues in competitive athletes. This statement discusses how members of the sports medicine team, including team physicians, athletic trainers, and mental health providers, work together in providing comprehensive psychological care to athletes. It specifically addresses psychological factors in athletes including personality issues and the psychological response to injury and illness. The statement also examines the athletic culture and environmental factors that commonly impact mental health, including sexuality and gender issues, hazing, bullying, sexual misconduct, and transition from sport. Specific mental health disorders in athletes, such as eating disorders/disordered eating, depression and suicide, anxiety and stress, overtraining, sleep disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, are reviewed with a focus on detection, management, the effect on performance, and prevention. This document uses the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) to grade level of evidence.
The purpose of this article is to describe sport psychology and a model for its practice that is consistent with the training of counseling psychologists as teachers of life skills. Following an examination of the role that sport plays in our society and its importance for the development of identity and personal competence, what is meant by sport psychology and why it is a relevant area of study for counseling psychologists will be specified. A psychoeducational model for the practice of sport psychology, life development intervention (LDI), will be delineated and some examples of sport psychology consistent with the LDI model proposed. Using LDI as a base, dilemmas that counseling psychologists face when doing sport psychology will be considered Finally, some of the training issues for counseling psychologists doing sport psychology will be presented.
In this paper, we examine the account-making model of Harvey, Weber, and Orbuch (1990) as a framework for understanding negative reactions to retirement from competitive sport. Theoretical aspects of the model are first summarized, and a case study is then presented to illustrate the central role of account-making in the adjustment process for an Olympic gold medallist. We conclude by suggesting ways that sport psychology consultants can facilitate account-making and thereby help athletes to cope with distressful reactions to retirement.
Former athletes (N = 48) from a variety of sports provided information about the primary reason for their athletic retirement and the degree of adjustment required. Content analysis of reasons for retirement indicated that this sample of athletes retired from competitive sport for numerous reasons, including age, injury, deselection, and voluntary career termination. Subsequent comparisons between athletes who retired for voluntary and involuntary reasons indicated that involuntary retirement was associated with significantly greater emotional and social adjustment on career termination. In addition, the former athletes who experienced the greatest adjustment difficulty perceived the least personal control over the reasons for retirement. Implications for professional and applied work in the area are discussed, and suggestions are made regarding future research on career transitions from sport.
Although the parent discipline of sport psychology is psychology, the delivery of sport psychology services has its main roots in physical education and sports science (motor learning and control, skill acquisition). Thus, sport psychologists may look more like coaches than they look like clinicians or counselors. In this article, the authors trace the evolution of sport psychology services and contrast the temporal, spatial, and delivery issues of applied sport psychology with more mainstream counseling and clinical psychology. The looser boundaries of sport psychologist practice have both benefits and dangers, and the authors offer some examples to professional psychologists who are thinking of expanding their delivery of service to athletes and coaches.
This paper compares findings from a survey of former Canadian Junior hockey players and results from a representative sample of males of the same age in the general population. The analyses test hypotheses derived from the argument that disengagement from elite-level sport leads to various stress-induced negative consequences. The three primary dependent variables, suggested by the previous literature, are measures of life satisfaction, employment status, and marital status. For these measures, there was no evidence of negative consequences of disengagement, even when the comparisons were controlled for time since disengagement. This conclusion was also supported by reports from the former players on their attitudes toward elite-level hockey and about their disengagement from the role of active player at this level. A possible exception was in the former players’ reports of feelings of loss at the time of disengagement. Relevant analyses are also reported for the extent of continued involvement in hockey in other than playing capacities. There were some effects of continued involvement upon attitudes toward hockey that suggest that involvement functions to limit attitudes of negativity. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.
The possibility that the experience of retirement from sport may be different from one athlete to another has not been thoroughly examined. The current study offers evidence on the effect of role performance in intercollegiate basketball and football on life satisfaction in the period of adulthood immediately following. The theoretical departure point for this research comes from Kearl’s (1986) analysis of “exits” in everyday life and his assumption that the quality of role performance in the ending phases of a career will influence subsequent well-being. From a survey of recollections, orientations, and current conditions of 426 former football and basketball players, subjects were grouped according to whether they had received some kind of recognition during their last year (e.g., all-league, honorable mention), whether they had started most of the games or not, and whether their career had been cut short due to serious injury. Life satisfaction, as measured by the LSI-A, showed a significant main effect for career-ending injury but not for the other two variables, and there were no interactions. Athletes who had sustained a careerending injury before completing eligibility showed significantly lower life satisfaction than those who had not. Tests for the influence of year leaving sport and continued involvement in sport did not change the result. Thus, the evidence provides mixed support for the quality-of-exit thesis; while good endings may not affect subsequent life satisfaction, bad endings may.
Retirement from competitive sports often poses significant difficulties for an athlete, whether competing at the high school college, elite, or professional levels. This article describes the meaning that sport involvement may have for an athlete, and indicates how the affiliation with an identity as an athlete may influence adjustment to retirement. Research has suggested that many athletes are poorly prepared for their retirement from competition and may face considerable difficulties in their coping with the significant life changes that accompany the end of their sports careers and sports identities. Suggestions are presented for various programs to assist athletes before, during, and after their retirement from competition, with special attention given to the application of a life development intervention (LDI) approach.
This study explored the retirement experiences of elite, female gymnasts using qualitative methodology. Despite the extensive research that exists on athletic retirement, no previous study has involved this particular group of athletes. It was hypothesized that elite, female gymnasts face unique challenges upon retirement as a result of the young ages at which they begin and end their competitive careers. Seven former national and international level female gymnasts participated in an in-depth interview. An inductive analysis revealed that retirement may be conceptualized in the phases of Retirement (exit from sport), Nowhere Land, and New Beginnings. Five of the seven participants experienced difficult transitions, characterized by feelings of disorientation, void, and frustration. The findings indicate that the distinction between voluntary and involuntary retirement is unclear and that athletes who retire of their own volition are not necessarily exempt from adjustment difficulties. Developmental theories are applied to explain the identity confusion reported by the gymnasts. Recommendations are made for enhancing the ability of young athletes to meet developmental challenges while participating in elite sport. Furthermore, the use of qualitative methodologies in sport psychology research is recommended to facilitate our understanding of athletes’ idiosyncratic experiences.
While an historical glance through the sport psychology literature reveals an interest in performance excellence since its beginning, a focus of personal excellence has been a more recent trend. This review will address the relationships between performance and personal excellence. More specifically, we question whether performance excellence in high-level sport, by virtue of the exceptional demands on the elite athlete, occurs at the expense of development in personal excellence or whether performance excellence is possible only through personal excellence. Furthermore, we propose that the field may reconcile these ideals in the future through an athlete-centered sport model. This model is defined by the philosophy that developmentally appropriate sport can be used as a vehicle for enhancing overall well-being and the acquisition of lifelong skills. Performance excellence, therefore, co-exists in the same environment as personal excellence. The implications of implementing an athlete-centered sport system for athletes and coaches and for the research and practice of those in sport psychology will be addressed.
Competitive athletes are confronted with a number of adjustments during the career ambition process. In the present study, 48 former elite-level athletes sup plied information about their financial, occupational, emotional, and social adjustment to retirement from sport. Athletic identity at the time of retirement was also assessed, along with self-reported use of various coping strategies and the perceived quality of adjustment to retirement. Results indicated that acceptance, positive reinterpretation, planning, and active coping were the most frequently used coping strategies during the career transition process. At the same time, athletic identity at the time of retirement exhibited significant relationships to coping processes, emotional and social adjustment, pre-retirement planning, and anxiety about career decision-making. Implications for career transition programs are discussed. along with suggestions for future research.
Common anticipated and unanticipated transitions faced by athletes are examined from the perspectives of developmental psychology and a model of adult transitions developed by Nancy Schlossberg. Factors contributing to dysfunctional response to transitions associated with athletic careers are identified and discussed. Preventive strategies, targeting athletes at risk of experiencing dysfunctionality in such transitions, are examined, and illustrative programs described. 1990 American Counseling Association
Traces the development of the cognitive approach to psychopathology and psy hotherapy from common-sense observations and folk wisdom, to a more sophisticated understanding of the emotional disorders, and finally to the application of rational techniques to correct the misconceptions and conceptual distortions that form the matrix of the neuroses. The importance of engaging the patient in exploration of his inner world and of obtaining a sharp delineation of specific thoughts and underlying assumptions is emphasized. (91/4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Suggests that transition out of a career in sports is a difficult and disruptive process for many athletes. An early and enduring identification, familiarity, and preference for the role of athlete may cause its loss to be a significant stressor for the elite, Olympic, or professional athlete. The authors describe the various aspects of the career transition process in sports, beginning with early identification with the role of athlete and continuing through retirement from active participation in competitive sports. Athletes are often poorly prepared for the off-time event of leaving sports, and traditional theories of retirement may not be suitable. People associated with athletes (coaches, peers, management, family members, and sport psychologists) and athletes themselves need to be aware of the potential for difficulty during their career transition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Objectives: To examine planning age of athletic retirement of elite athletes in the United Kingdom, athletes’ short-term plans in terms of a balance between sports and other activities, and athletes’ long-term plans in regard to their activities after sports career termination.Design and methods: Participants were 561 elite-level athletes (mean age=26.0 years) who completed a self-administered postal survey. A total of 37 individual and team sports were represented.Results: One-way analysis of variance indicated that the age at which participants planned on retiring from sport varied significantly across sports, among male and female athletes, and among able and disabled athletes. A series of chi-square analyses revealed significant differences in the short-term plans of athletes in terms of increasing training, plans to start education and plans to find a job over the next 12 months.Conclusions: There appears to be an unwillingness among younger athletes and those who perceive themselves to have a significant amount of time before they retire to develop concrete plans about their future career prior to their retirement. It is recommended that further research be conducted in order to assess the career development needs of elite athletes across Europe.
Background and purpose. The concept of transitions has, during the past decade, become a well-delineated topic of study among the sport psychology community. This introductory article provides an overview of the major developments within this thematic field of research, as well as a description of interventions used with athletes in transition. Avenues for further research and developments are proposed.Methods. Literature review and integration.Results and conclusions. Analysis reveals that the concept of transition is currently viewed in a holistic, life-span perspective which spans the athletic and post-athletic career and which includes transitions occurring in the athletic career as well as those occurring in other domains of athletes’ lives. This ‘beginning-to-end’ approach is illustrated with a developmental model on transitions faced by athletes at athletic, individual, psychosocial, and academic/vocational level. At the level of interventions, analysis suggests that the focus on interventions has shifted from the use of traditional therapeutic approaches to cope with the possible traumatic experience of the termination of the athletic career, to that of career transitions and athlete life skill programs aimed at providing support and education to athletes making athletic and non-athletic transitions. Finally, suggestions for future conceptual developments include the need to extend the available knowledge on the characteristics of specific transitions (e.g. non-normative transitions, in-career transitions), on the influence of sport-, gender- or cultural-specific factors on the quality of the transitional process, as well as on the user-friendliness and applicability of sports career transition interventions and programs across the range of athletes.