A cross-national comparison of the transition out of elite sport of Swiss, Danish, and Polish athletes

Kuettel, Andreas; Boyle, Eleanor; Christensen, Mette; Schmid, Jürg (2018). A cross-national comparison of the transition out of elite sport of Swiss, Danish, and Polish athletes. Sport & exercise psychology review, 14(1), pp. 2-22. The British Psychological Society

[img] Text
Kuettel.Boyle.Christensen.Schmid.2018.Accepted_manuscript_SEPR.pdf - Accepted Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (699kB)

The main purpose of this study was to compare the transition out of elite sport of former Swiss, Danish, and Polish athletes in terms of (a) preconditions of retirement, (b) the transitional and adaptation period, and (c) consequences of the transition. The sample consisted of 231 Swiss, 86 Danish, and 84 Polish athletes who answered an online version of the Athletic Career Termination Questionnaire (Kuettel, Boyle, & Schmid, 2017) in their respective language. Separate one-way ANOVAs and chi-square tests revealed more differences than similarities between the transitional processes of athletes from the three countries. Athletes differed significantly in their educational level, their athletic identity, and their working experience while active in the sport. Swiss athletes experienced the least distress during the transition, while Polish athletes reported the highest difficulties. Polish athletes relocated mainly in jobs connected to the sport and thus rated their previous sport network as more important for finding an occupation compared to Swiss and Danish athletes. Based on our results and in line with findings of previous cross-national studies, we emphasize that it is important to consider the socio-cultural context when studying athletes’ retirement process. Some context-specific recommendations for career counseling and career assistance programs for athletes are provided.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW)
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW) > Sport Science II [discontinued]

UniBE Contributor:

Schmid, Jürg (B)

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment

ISSN:

1745-4980

Publisher:

The British Psychological Society

Language:

English

Submitter:

Jürg Schmid

Date Deposited:

15 Mar 2018 10:59

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2023 23:35

Uncontrolled Keywords:

elite sport; athletic retirement, transition, cross-national study

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.112958

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/112958

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback