Theoretical Perspectives on Career Transitions in Sport

This chapter outlines theoretical perspectives on career transitions in sport. Models that have been employed to explain this phenomenon will initially be delineated, including theories of social gerontology, thanatology, and human adaptation to transition. This will be followed by an outline of a conceptual model of sports career transition (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1998). This model focuses on how the causes of career transition, developmental experiences of the athlete, and coping resources affect the quality of adjustment to career transitions in sport. Theoretical Perspectives on Career Transitions in Sport The sport-scientific community has made an effort to conceptualize the career transition process ever since a debate emerged regarding the incidence of distress experienced by retiring athletes. Numerous investigations have been made into athletic career termination, with various explanatory frameworks being employed to explain the phenomenon. Theorists have, however, predominantly made parallels between career transitions in sport and social gerontological models of aging, thanatological models of death and dying, and models of human adaptation to transition. Social Gerontological Models Gerontology, as a scientific field of study, has been defined as the systematic analysis of the aging process (Atchley, 1991). This academic discipline consists of biological, social, and psychological subdivisions, with social gerontology concentrating on the mutual interaction between society and the aged. In its broadest sense, social gerontology attempts to explain the lives and activities of those who appear to age successfully. Numerous gerontological orientations, therefore, have been utilized to explain the general process of retirement from the labor force. Sport theoreticians have suggested that several models of social gerontology are applicable in the study of transitions in sport (e.g., S. H. Lerch, 1981; McPherson, 1980; Rosenberg, 1981). In an attempt to understand the problems and processes confronted by retiring athletes, the career transition process has been compared to the following social gerontological perspectives: activity theory, subculture theory, disengagement theory, continuity theory, social breakdown theory, and social exchange theory.