Document Type : Research Paper
Abstract
The aim of the present study was investigation the way in which the quality of sports career termination process is quantitatively related to athletic (subjective evaluation of athletic achievements, voluntariness and gradualness of sport-career termination, and pre-retirement planning for post-sport life) and non-athletic (educational status and age) factors. Participants were 53 former male elite Iranian athletes (aged 23–52 years) who had been ended their sports career for atleast five years ago. The athlets' retrospective views on experiences and reactions to their retirement were described by an adapted version of the Cecić Erpič’s et al. (2004) Sports Career Termination Questionnaire (SCTQ). The questionnaire findings revealed that the quality of sports career retirement was related to experienced difficulties at the occupational, psychosocial and psychological levels by the sportsmen. According to the results, the quality of the sports career termination process significantly correlated by the participants’ subjective evaluation of athletic achievements, the voluntariness of career ending, and educational status. Pre-retirement planning, a gradual sport-career termination and age were not significantly correlated to the quality of adaptation with athletic retirement. Our research findings generally indicated that the sports career termination is an important life event which could have a significant influence in an athlete’s life and that the quality of adaptation with athletic retirement is multifaceted and complex.
Keywords
)