Understanding athlete transition is a complex process which involves many subjective pieces. A review of previous literature on athletic career termination has shown that two of the most highly debated topics include athletes' specific reason for retirement (Cockerill 2004; Orlick & Sinclair 1993; Webb, Nasco, Riley, & Headrick 1998), and the coping techniques employed by athletes during their transition period (Coakley 1983; Grove, Lavallee, & Gordon, 1997; Lavallee 2005; Sinclair & Orlick, 1993; Reynolds 1981). The purpose of this study was to examine important components involved in retirement from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competitive athletics: self-concept clarity, athletic identity, willingness to retire, coping and overall life satisfaction. Self-concept clarity was conceptualized as the primary variable of focus because it tends to be internally consistent over time (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2010), and previous studies have shown that the effect of role exits and entries negatively predicts one's perceived self-concept clarity (Light & Visser, 2013). Participants were female (n=148) and male (n=89) former NCAA athletes from over 75 different Division I colleges and universities across the United States, ranging in age from 20 to 27 years old (M=22.47, SD=.837). They were to be no more than 12 months removed from their last NCAA game or practice, and the total number of months they were retired ranged from 1 to 12 months (M=7.77, SD= 2.1). Path analyses were used to determine which factors significantly contributed to self-concept clarity, and overall life satisfaction. Results revealed coping style, significantly mediated the relationship between athletic identity, willingness to retire, and self-concept clarity. Most importantly, emotion-focused coping lead to higher self-concept clarity for athletes during the transition process, and avoidance coping lead to a negative effect on athlete self-concept clarity. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 12, 2017. / Athletics, Career Termination, Coping, NCAA, Retirement, Self-Concept / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Chow, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joshua Newman, University Representative; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Paul Conway, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_507645 |
| Contributors | Cologgi, Kimberly A. (Kimberly Ann) (authoraut), Chow, Graig Michael (professor directing dissertation), Newman, Joshua I., 1976- (university representative), Tenenbaum, Gershon (committee member), Conway, P. (Paul) (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (79 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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