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The objectives of this study were (1) to explore the Transition Monitoring Survey (TMS) for assessing athletes' transition from junior-to-senior sports, (2) to describe the transition from junior-to-senior sports in Swedish athletes based on the TMS data, and (3) to explore how the transition variables contribute to the athletes' perceived degree of adjustment to the senior level and to their sport and life satisfaction. The TMS was developed based on career development/transition frameworks and previous qualitative research on the transition from junior-to-senior sports. Altogether 416 participants organized in three samples were involved in this exploratory study. The study illuminated the strong points of the TMS as a theoretically based and culturally adapted instrument, but it also shed a light on some deficits of the TMS that should be eliminated in its further use in transition research.

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a school of health and Welfare, halmstad university, halmstad, sweden; b Faculty of health and life sciences, linnaeus university, växjö, sweden ABSTRACT There are as many careers with various pathways as there are athletes, and the interest in the junior-to-senior transition (JST) stems from its particular importance for athletes' lives when aiming for the senior elite levels of their sports. This study is a follow-up of the quantitative longitudinal study that investigated the JST process in Swedish sport club athletes. The aim of this study was to explore two athletes' (pseudonyms Erik, the swimmer, and Jessika, the tennis player) JST transition pathways, emphasising psychosocial factors that were perceived as facilitating and debilitating the transition process. Narrative-type interviews were conducted, and the stories were analysed using the holistic-form structural analysis. The analysis provided a central storyline (performance narrative) that is similar for both athletes, and two side storylines: Erik's effort and relationship narrative and Jessika's injury and reorientation narrative. They shared psychosocial factors that were perceived as facilitating the transition process, including family, coaches and sport club environment. For Erik, the debilitating factors were the negative changes in the group and a poor relationship with the new coach. The debilitating factors that influenced Jessika's JST were the decrease/ loss of financial support and the challenge of facing younger opponents against whom she felt she shouldn't lose when making a comeback after an injury. After the JST, both Erik and Jessika changed their tracks in life, terminated their athletic careers and focused on pursuing higher education qualifications. ARTICLE HISTORY