Socialization experience and identity foreclosure: An exploration of the effects of role disengagement on the personal adjustment of former college athletes

Date of Completion

January 1991

Keywords

Psychology, Social|Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

The central theoretical question of this study was, What is the nature of the disengagement process for college athletes leaving a social role to which they have developed a high degree of commitment and which has supplied them with an important anchorage for their personal and social identities? Its major purpose was to explore and understand the dynamics associated with both short-term and long-term adjustment of male former college athletes. Its central thrust was the identification of key factors affecting adjustment of former college athletes during the period of short-term retirement and during the period of long-term retirement.^ In the above-named descriptive ex post facto study, events had transpired and thus the manipulation of independent variables was precluded.^ The data gathered through the survey instrument were subjected to discriminant function analysis, employing the Wilks' lambda U-statistic as a preceeding variance test. Results of the analyses indicated that a number of the social, psychological and educational variables, types of retirement, and degrees of economic status were related to the degree of personal adjustment experienced by former college athletes during each period of retirement.^ Principal findings: Short-term retirement. The discriminant analysis, in which the variables were considered in relation to one another, revealed that of eleven variables tested for predictive power seven were significant at.05 level, as follows: salience, sport role commitment, grade point average, type of retirement, graduation status, and mother's and father's education levels.^ Long-term retirement. The discriminant analysis, in which the variables were considered in relation to one another, revealed that of thirteen variables tested for predicted power five were significant at.05 level, as follows: sport role commitment, self-perception, grade point average, graduation status, and economic status.^ In this study, grade point average and graduation status were found to be key predictors of adjustment for former college athletes in both long- and short-term periods of retirement. ^

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