Life well-being and reasons for the termination of sport careers among Croatian elite athletes

Abstract

Ending a sports’ career can be a traumatic event in elite athletes’ lives. The success of the adjustment to a new way of life can greatly depend on the reasons for ending the career. This research paper aimed to establish a relationship between life well-being and reasons for the ending of sport careers. This research study was conducted on a sample of 170 elite Croatian male and female athletes who terminated their active sport career. Three scales measuring life well-being were employed: Scale of Life Quality, Scale of Life Well-being, and Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale. The eight most common reasons for ending a sport career were offered; the answers were given in binary mode with the possibility to give more reasons for career termination. The relationship between life well-being and reasons for ending one’s sport career was determined via canonical and quasi-canonical correlation analysis. Prior to analysis, binary variables were normalized. A canonical correlation analysis showed one significant correlation with a magnitude of 0.362, significant at p=0.036, while a quasi-canonical analysis showed only one significant correlation with a magnitude of 0.23, significant at p=0.003. The analyses show two different relationships between the current life well-being of retired athletes and the reasons for their career ending; they could be explained by sport identity and deliberate or involuntary sport retirement.