Adler Zwahlen, Jenny; Engel, Robertino; Seiler, Roland; Schmid, Jürg (15 July 2015). The effects of benefit finding on athletes’ quality of adjustment to career termination. In: Seiler, Roland; Schmid, Olivier (eds.) 14th European Congress of Sport Psychology (p. 289). Bern: University of Bern, Institute of Sport Science
Retirement from elite sports requires athletes to cope with adjustments on an occupational, financial, physical, social or emotional level. Research on critical life events (e.g., Filipp & Aymanns, 2010) suggests that benefit finding, defined as “the process of deriving positive growth from adversity” (Cassidy et al., 2014), may have a positive impact on this transition. The present study examined the effects of benefit finding on the quality of adjustment to career termination in the short, middle and long term. Former Swiss elite athletes (N = 290) completed a written survey collecting information on a) their emotional reaction to career termination, b) the amount of adjustment in various respects, c) situational characteristics of their career termination, d) the duration and quality of the transition, and e) their subjective well-being. Using Latent Variable Modelling, finding benefit in career termination was found to have both a direct and an indirect effect on long-term well-being (γ=.18). It predicts favorable emotional reactions to career termination (γ = .53) and less adjustment (γ = -.38) which in turn shortens the transition duration (β = -.15 and β = .55, respectively) and quality (β = -.15), and finally augments well-being (β = .41). The data suggest that a focus on benefit finding in both crisis-prevention and crisis-coping interventions may prove useful to prevent crisis transitions.
Item Type: |
Conference or Workshop Item (Abstract) |
|---|---|
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: |
Adler Zwahlen, Jenny, Engel, Robertino, Seiler, Roland, Schmid, Jürg (B) |
Subjects: |
100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology 700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment |
ISBN: |
978-3-033-05129-4 |
Publisher: |
University of Bern, Institute of Sport Science |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Roland Seiler |
Date Deposited: |
30 Sep 2015 10:59 |
Last Modified: |
29 Mar 2023 23:34 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/71979 |
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