Olympic athletes back to retirement: A qualitative longitudinal study

ObjectiveIn this qualitative longitudinal study we assess the retirement process of Olympic athletes. We aim to evaluate the influence that following a dual career or being exclusively focused on sport can have in this process. We compare athletes' prospective views before retirement (Torregrosa, Boixadós, Valiente, & Cruz, 2004) with their retrospective accounts ten years later. This allows us to assess athletes' accuracy in predicting the process and its outcomes in relation to the trajectory followed.DesignWe designed a qualitative longitudinal study (Epstein, 2002) conducting semi-structured interviews.MethodFifteen Olympic athletes were interviewed twice. Thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data comparing prospective views and retrospective accounts of: (a) retirement planning, (b) voluntary termination, (c), multiple personal identities, (d) availability of social support, and (e) active coping strategies.ResultsTen athletes reported positive transitions related to their favorable approach to the five categories above. Most athletes reporting positive transitions followed dual careers (i.e., parallel or convergent trajectories). Five out of fifteen athletes reported unexpected difficulties in the transition. Four of these followed a linear trajectory during their sporting career. A clear view of retirement in the prospective interviews also facilitated retirement for an athlete following a linear trajectory. While a diffuse view of retirement in the prospective interview signaled future difficulties.ConclusionResults from this qualitative longitudinal study suggest that promoting dual careers in elite sport and working on the prospective view of retirement can facilitate retirement from elite sport and the transition to an alternative professional career.     

Supporting dual career in Spain: Elite athletes' barriers to study

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to analyze whether a Career Assistance Program (PROAD) facilitates the dual career.Design and methodA cross-sectional, prospective and quantitative design was used. A questionnaire was sent to all of Spain's elite athletes from Olympic sports. Of the 2378 elite athletes, 575 (332 men and 243 women) completed the 29-item questionnaire. The overall response rate was 24.2%.ResultsMost of the athletes perceived the dual career as difficult. Their most significant barriers are related to time management. The PROAD athletes and the non-PROAD athletes encountered the same barriers to studying. In general, the PROAD program seemed to have a positive effect on the academic level an athlete achieves. The athletes enrolled in the PROAD were more informed than the non-enrolled athletes. PROAD athletes were more proactive in demanding help and they had a closer relationship with the Spanish Sport Council than the non-PROAD athletes.ConclusionsStudent-athletes have several problems with the normalized educational system. Sport psychologists should reinforce the athlete's strengths, and they should seek the opportunities the sport context provides to athletes. The barriers could be minimized by adopting certain strategies. The PROAD program seems to be useful in terms of providing information, in ensuring elite athletes work or study before the end of their sports career, in making them responsible and autonomous, and in being more active.     

An Examination of the Effects of Sport Involvement on Ethical Judgments in Sport and Business

Popular press headlines frequently reveal unethical or illegal activity in business and sports. Given these parallel ethical lapses in business and sport, our study examines potential relationships between student sport involvement (active and passive) and ethical judgments regarding issues in sport and business. Our results, based on a sample of 202 undergraduates in an upper-division management class, indicate a significant negative relationship between high passive sport involvement and ethical judgments about sport issues as well as a consistent significant positive relationship between female gender and ethical judgments about sport and business issues.     

To err again is human: exploring a bidirectional relationship between pressure and performance failure feedback

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: While the potentially negative effects of pressure on skilled performance have been well studied in laboratory-based research, theoretically driven questions based on real-world performance data are lacking.

Design: We aimed to test the predictions of the newly developed Attentional Control Theory: Sport (ACTS), using archived play-by-play data from the past seven seasons of the National Football League (American Football).

Methods: An additive scoring system was developed to characterize the degree of pressure on 212,356 individual offensive plays and a Bayesian regression model was used to test the relationship between performance, pressure and preceding negative outcomes, as outlined in ACTS.

Results: There was found to be a clear increase in the incidence of failures on high pressure plays (odds ratio?=?1.20), and on plays immediately following a previous play failure (odds ratio?=?1.09). Additionally, a combined interactive effect of previous failure and pressure indicated that the feedback effect of negative outcomes was greater when pressure was already high (odds ratio?=?1.10), in line with the predictions of ACTS.

Conclusions: These findings reveal the importance of exploring momentary changes in pressure in real-world sport settings, and the role of failure feedback in influencing the pressure-performance relationship.     

The mediational role of perceived stress in the relation between optimism and burnout in competitive athletes

Abstract

Burnout has been highlighted as an important issue, not only in occupational settings but also among athletes. Optimists appear to be more resistant to burnout, which might be partly explained by lower levels of stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between optimism and burnout symptoms in 217 athletes (139 males and 78 females, aged 16 to 19 years), while also examining stress as a mediator in this relationship. The results showed that optimism had a significant negative relationship with both stress and burnout. Mediation analyses indicated that perceived stress fully mediated the links between optimism and two symptoms of burnout, emotional/physical exhaustion and sport devaluation, and partly mediated the link between optimism and a third symptom, reduced sense of accomplishment. The findings indicate that individual factors, such as optimism, may play an important role in the development of burnout by virtue of their association with stress. Future research should, therefore, investigate the longitudinal effects of optimism on stress and burnout.     

Fantasy Play in 5- and 6-Year-Old Children

We studied the verbal pretend play of 5- and 6-year-old boys and girls to delineate age and sex differences during the later preoperational period. Sixteen children with average language ability were paired by age and sex and were videotaped for three 15-min intervals. Verbal interactions were transcribed, and the pretend play was classified as object fantasy, imaginative action plans/themes, or fantasy roles. Language ilsed for pretend play increased in proportion to all utterances with age. Older children referred to more invented objects than younger ones but primarily in the service of realistic action formats. Girls' conversations were scored as having significantly more verbal pretending than boys' and a higher proportion of it referred to play roles. There were both age and sex differences in the types of themes, toys used, and roles enacted, including more sex-typed behavior in older children. The continued increase in the proportion of pretend play to all verbal interaction with age and the characteristics of play behavior is consistent with developmental theory.     

虚拟团队理论研究及其发展趋势

本文对近几年来有关虚拟团队产生的背景、基本理论研究思路、研究现状及其未来研究的发展趋势作了初步讨论。文章的主要结论是：对虚拟团队的理论研究正在从静态的、横向的、宏观的层次,向更为动态的、纵向的、微观的层次深入;将更加关注虚拟团队运作机制的研究;将更加关注电子商务背景下的项目虚拟团队;将更多的采用较为系统的现场和实验室研究的方法;将更加注重虚拟团队过程绩效的评估。     

“You have to be mental to jump off a board any way”: Elite divers' conceptualizations and perceptions of mental health

ObjectivesMental health research in elite sport focuses predominantly on mental illness prevalence rates and help-seeking behaviours. Diving has been identified as a sport that generates particular challenges for maintaining mental health, yet has received scant attention from researchers. Therefore, purpose this paper explores what mental health and mental health related behaviours mean for a group of young, elite athletes as conditioned by their peculiar social context as elite athletes.MethodSemi-structured interviews were conducted with purposely sampled eight elite divers aged between 14 and 24 years with between 5 and 16 years of diving experience who have competed in international level diving competitions including Olympic, Common Wealth and World Cup competitions. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.ResultsAnalysis identified mental health literacy, experiences of mental health, risk factors, and opportunities for support as themes. Mental health generated negative connotations for participants attributable to knowledge development occurring through personal and vicarious experience of mental illness. Limited knowledge of symptoms of mental illnesses was evident. Participants identified a range of risk-factors inherent in their sport performance and culture revealing a performative and gendered dimension to mental health.ConclusionsOur results indicate the need to recognize the performative nature of mental health for elite divers and therefore social and cultural influences alongside biophysical. Greater efforts need to be made to help improve the overall mental health literacy of elite divers so they may be able to seek the support and treatment they need.     

Intersecting identities of elite female boxers: Stories of cultural difference and marginalization in sport

ObjectivesThe project responds to calls for research that attends to issues of cultural diversity within sport and that facilitates expanded understandings of socially constructed identities. The intersecting identities of elite female boxers are explored in terms of how they shape experiences of marginalization and well-being within sport. Focus is on constructions of race and ethnicity, language, and religion.DesignAn intersectional lens grounded in social constructionism was integrated with a cultural sport psychology approach to espouse the complexity, fluidity, and multi-dimensionality of the athletes’ identities as the product of intersecting narratives.MethodsMandala drawings and conversational interviews were employed as open-ended data collection processes that enabled the participants to share their identities. Portrait vignettes were then developed as creative nonfiction to elucidate how identities dynamically intersect and shape sport experiences.ResultsFive portrait vignettes layer together to show issues of identity expression, oppression and White privilege within the boxing context. The stories provide contextual insight into the ways in which athletes continually construct and negotiate identities in relation to dynamics of difference and sameness. They move fluidly between identities that are valued and identities that are marginalized, moments of open expression and moments of concealment.ConclusionsThe research contributes to social justice missions within sport by illuminating how certain identities result in individuals being dis/advantaged, socially excluded, and discriminated against. Possibilities are revealed for challenging social inequalities and facilitating more inclusive sport spaces that resonate with who athletes are as holistic, multifaceted people.