Is There a Reformation Into Identity Achievement for Life After Elite Sport? A Journey of Identity Growth Paradox During Liminal Rites and Identity Moratorium

Abstract

Athletes’ identity development upon retirement from elite sport was examined through a model of self-reformation that integrates and builds on the theoretical underpinnings of identity development and liminality, while advancing seven propositions and supporting conceptual conjectures using findings from research on athletes’ transition out of sport. As some elite athletes lose a salient athletic identity upon retiring from sport, they experience an identity crisis and enter the transition rites feeling in between their former athletic identity and future identity post-sport life, during which a temporary identity moratorium status is needed for identity growth. Given the developmental challenges encountered in moratorium and psychosocial processes necessary to establish a new, fulfilling identity for life after elite sport, we identified key conditions, triggers, and processes that advance how a journey of identity growth paradox experienced during liminality serves as a catalyst toward identity achievement. Elite athletes must be encouraged to persevere in this challenging identity search and delay commitments for as long as it is necessary to achieve identity growth despite experiencing uncomfortable feelings of confusion, void, and ambiguity during the liminal phase. Reforming into an achieved identity for life after elite sport would corroborate the successful navigation of transition, as elite athletes evolved into a synthesized sense of self by cementing, through a negotiated adaptation pathway, constructed identity commitments that will provide new beginnings and meaningful directions to their life after elite sport.

‘Falling Upward’ into Sports Retirement: A Rohrsian Exploration of the Sports Retirement Experience

“…Indeed, findings from sports psychology haveconsistently emphasised the significant connections between sports careers and mental health issues (Brewer et al 1993; van Ramele et al 2017). It is the 'salience', strength, and exclusivity of the athletic role during sport participation that increases the potential vulnerability of the athlete to psychological distress in retirement, especially if the attachment to athletic identity is maintained after sport (Wendling and Sagas 2021). In turn, sports psychology research overwhelmingly argues that identity management and development, both during and after sport, should be a primary task when attempting to mitigate against the potential challenges associated with career termination (Carless and Douglas 2009;Wendling and Sagas 2021).…”

“…As a result of these tensions, it is commonplace for individual athletes in a stage of disorder to embark on what Wendling and Sagas (2021) have identified as patient time in a liminal space where they begin a self-guided process of identity reformation. Rather than absolving them of their pain and disorder (and despite the best efforts of the individual concerned), for Rohr (2004, p. 116), this ".…”

Integrated Fan Identity

“…His ideas have inspired identity scholars in that it has served as foundational work in understanding individuals' identity development. Following Erikson's theoretical propotisions of ego identity, the identity status paradigm was introduced to emperically operationalize the concept of ego identity (Marcia, 1966), which serves as the most prominent and dominant conceptual platform for personal identity studies (Wendling & Sagas, 2021). In the paradigm, the two criteria for the presence of identity formation are exploration and commitment.…”

Identity Work in Athletes: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…However, when their athletic career ends, inevitable shifts in interests and priorities are to be made to adjust to a life after sport. Given that career-seeking athletes were less inclined to explore other aspects of their life outside of sports, they may not have many alternatives to build upon when structuring a new sense of self, which may lead them to experience existential concerns and challenging adjustments upon the termination of their athletic career [6,12,[15][16][17][18].…”

“…While traditionally, the salience of athletic identity has been quantitatively gauged by "the strength and exclusivity of identification with the athlete role" [25], this salience is not considered static and is instead prone to continuous renegotiations throughout an athlete's career. Specifically, nearing the discontinuation stage [19], it increases the need for negotiated adaptation of athletic identities [18,26], when athletes prepare for their normative (e.g., graduation, expected conclusion of contract) or non-normative (e.g., injury, sudden discontinuation of contract) exit from sports and enter career transitions [27][28][29]. Through these life events, athletes are likely to experience identity threats, during which they can be triggered to reduce the tension from such threats and resolve conflicts by adjusting their identities.…”