The purpose of this study was to examine and explore the transition experiences of Canada's high performance athletes within Charner and Schlossberg's (1986) theoretical framework to determine the predisposing factors and effects of the transition process. More specifically, this study investigated the reasons for retirement, the individual coping strategies and support networks used by transitional athletes, as well as other variables that may have impacted on the athlete's adjustment process. This study provided an alternative, comprehensive perspective from which to examine retirement from high performance sport. Retired high performance athletes (N = 199) with international competitive experience completed the Athlete Retirement Questionnaire, a 34-item instrument developed for this study. Multivariate analyses revealed that planned retirement led to smoother adjustment than unplanned retirement. Loglinear analyses indicated that positive adjustment was also related to those transitions which caused the least disruption in the lives of the athletes. Chi-square analyses showed that those athletes who adjusted smoothly tended to retire after they had achieved their sport related goals or because they had achieved their goals in sport. Athletes who were more dissatisfied with their transition tended to feel incompetent outside of sport and tended to feel that keeping busy was not an effective coping strategy. Charner and Schlossberg's transitional framework received support in terms of overall fit, and provided direction for practical intervention suggestions. Finally, this study suggests that adjustment to retirement from high performance sport may not be as distressing or problematic for as many national team athletes as previously thought.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/5618 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Sinclair, Dana A. |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 114 p. |
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