The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of factors affecting adjustment to athletic retirement (i.e., athletic identity and perceived voluntariness of retirement) on physical activity behaviors in former high school athletes during the freshmen year of college. In previous research, athletes with high athletic identities whose retirement was involuntary were most likely to experience adjustment difficulties upon athletic retirement (Grove, Lavallee & Gordon, 1997). In this study, 49 voluntarily retired athletes, 29 involuntarily retired athletes and 50 non-athletes completed current and retrospective versions of the Physical Activity Index (PAI; Telama, Yang, Viikari, Välimäki, Wane & Raitakari, 2005), a retrospective version of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS; Brewer, Van Raalte & Linder, 1993) and, for former athletes only, a question regarding perceived voluntariness of retirement. For all participants, physical activity levels declined from high school to college. For athletes, there were no differences in physical activity change regardless of athletic identity (high vs. low) or voluntariness of retirement (voluntary vs. involuntary). Furthermore, the interaction of athletic identity with voluntariness of retirement was not predictive of current physical activity levels. No gender effects were observed. Overall, the results provide little support for the notion that continued physical activity reflects successful adjustment to athletic retirement. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science. / Spring Semester 2012. / March 27, 2012. / Athletic identity, Athletic retirement, Former high school athletes, Physical activity, Transition, Voluntariness / Includes bibliographical references. / David Eccles, Professor Directing Thesis; Robert Eklund, Committee Member; Lynn Panton, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182787 |
| Contributors | Brooks, Hannah Lucy (authoraut), Eccles, David (professor directing thesis), Eklund, Robert (committee member), Panton, Lynn (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, 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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