Career Development & Transitions

Career Development & Transitions

The central point of this topic is the holistic and multi-level approach for addressing transitions during sports and post-sport careers of athletes. Athletic careers involve normative and non-normative transitions, with successful transitions being preferable to crisis transitions. Career Assistance Programs offer support to athletes during transitions, aiming at helping athletes to prepare better for after-sports life. Athletes may require assistance due to unsuccessful or crisis transitions. 10 approaches of career assistance are discussed within this review.

Authors of this review:

Nikita Goncharenko

Date of Publication:

30/07/2023

Academic Reference:

Career development and transitions (by Natalia Stambulova)

Tags:sports psychology

Key Ideas

Predicted career stages & normative transition (by career models): (1) Descriptive Models: (a) initiation/sampling; (b) development/specialization; (c) perfection/mastery/investment; (d) final maintenance; (e) discontinuation; Stages may vary within sports, genders, and countries; (2) Normative athletic career transitions: (a) beginning of sport specialization; (b) the transition from junior to senior level; (c) transition from amateur to professional; (d) career termination;

How do existing career transition models explain the process & outcomes of transition? (1) pre-conditions & demands (2) coping processes (3) factors influencing coping (4) outcomes, (5) later consequences of transitions; Processes: (1) viewing coping processes/strategies as a center of transitions. (2) transitions’ demands vs athlete's resources. Outcomes: (1) Successful transition can be described as a general feeling of adjustment/satisfaction with sports and life. (2) Crisis transition requires psychological assistance (intervention).

Factors facilitate athletic retirement: How to prepare better? (1) Caused by multiple sources & longer process of reasoning and decision-making. (2) Reactions of termination differ inter-individually; (3) Critical point for adaptation: voluntary (vs involuntary) retirement lead to smoother transitions; (4) Making timely plans for life after a career (4.1) Cope transition & (4.2) build a new life; (5) Not only causes: (5.1) individual (education, competence training, goal-setting) (5.2) social resources (family support, post-career services) lead to successful adaptation; (6) 15-20% of elite retired athletes experience transition distress & a need in psychological assistance;

Cross-National Studies outline the role of Contextual factors in athletic retirement. e.g. Socio-cultural contexts: (1) Individualistic cultures tend to be planning cultures; (2) Countries like China, Russia, and France tend to have elite athletes relocate within sport; (3) Countries like Germany, Sweden, and France tend to take care of the education and employment of athletes; (4) Culturally specific criteria for satisfaction lead to post-career adaptation (e.g. Swedish case where "being within the standard" principle is a norm)

Why athletes might need assistance in career transitions: (1) Unsuccessful transitions; premature dropout; neuroses; overtraining; substance abuse; eating disorders; (2) Crisis-transitions: (2.1) an athlete wasn't able to cope independently; (2.2) perceived need for psychological assistance.

Outline principles of career assistance: (1) a whole-career approach: to help athletes to cope with normative & non-normative transitions during the whole athletic career. (2) a whole-person approach: to help them deal with transitions in various spheres of life. (3) A developmental approach: to help them link past career experiences, present situations, and perceived future. (4) An activity-specific approach, common + “type-of-sport-specitic” demands in each transition. (5) A culture-specific approach: to help them adjust within a particular sport system & culture (6) An individual approach: to fit perceptions of transitions & resources+barriers; (7) A transferable skills approach: to teach life skills applicable in and outside of sports; (8) A multidimensional approach: to provide enhancement, support, counselling & other interventions, depending on the needs of the athlete; (9) A multilevel approach: to address both traumatic symptoms & issues behind the symptoms (perceptions, decisions, attributions, attitudes); (10) An empowerment approach: to help athletes develop coping, resources & strategies, allowing them to become autonomous after intervention.

Citations

"Athletic career - multiyear voluntary activity aimed at achieving athletic peak (individual) in 1 or multiple sports events."

"Normative transitions - predictable challenges"

"Non-normative transitions- unpredictable challenges"

"Successful transition is a result of effective coping with the transition demands based on effective usage of the transition resources and avoidance/overcoming of the transition barriers."

"Crisis-transition is an alternative transition outcome that means inability of the athlete to cope with the transition demands on his/her own and implies searching for psychological assistance/intervention."

"Career Assistance Programs are integrated and comprehensive combinations of workshops, seminars, educational modules, individual counselling and/or a referral network providing individualized and/or group-oriented multidisciplinary support services to athletes with regard to their athletic participation, developmental and lifestyle issues, and educational and vocational development (Wylleman, Theeboom, and Lavallee, 2004)."

External References

Stambulova, N. (2010). Professional culture of career assistance to athletes: A look through contrasting lenses of career metaphors. In Ryba T., Schinke R., and Tenenbaum G. (Eds.) The cultural turn in sport psychology. Morgantown, WV: FIT. p. 285-314.

Wylleman, P. and Lavallee, D. (2004). A developmental perspective on transitions faced by athletes. In Weiss M. (Ed.), Developmental sport and exercise psychology: A lifespan perspective. Morgantown, WV: FIT. p. 507-527.