TY - JOUR
T1 - A shattered dream
T2 - Meaning construction in response to retirement from professional sport due to career-ending injury
AU - Pitcho-Prelorentzos, Shani
AU - Mahat-Shamir, Michal
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Human Kinetics, Inc.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The purpose of this study was to reveal the meanings Israeli athletes construct of their retirement from professional sport due to career-ending injury through the prism of constructivist theories. This qualitative study was designed in line with the principles and guidelines of interpretive phenomenological analysis. The sample comprised 12 professional athletes who retired as a result of career-ending injuries and participated in in-depth semistructured interviews. Findings indicate that the shattering nature of the experience of retirement under such circumstances severely damaged participants' subjective system of meaning and thereby disrupted the coherence of their life narrative. Consequently, participants were required to create meanings of their experience of retirement and to reauthor their life narrative. The results yielded 3 main themes: degradation, void, and ambiguity. A broader theoretical understanding of athletes' experience is suggested.
AB - The purpose of this study was to reveal the meanings Israeli athletes construct of their retirement from professional sport due to career-ending injury through the prism of constructivist theories. This qualitative study was designed in line with the principles and guidelines of interpretive phenomenological analysis. The sample comprised 12 professional athletes who retired as a result of career-ending injuries and participated in in-depth semistructured interviews. Findings indicate that the shattering nature of the experience of retirement under such circumstances severely damaged participants' subjective system of meaning and thereby disrupted the coherence of their life narrative. Consequently, participants were required to create meanings of their experience of retirement and to reauthor their life narrative. The results yielded 3 main themes: degradation, void, and ambiguity. A broader theoretical understanding of athletes' experience is suggested.
KW - Constructivist theories
KW - Forced retirement
KW - Interpretive phenomenological analysis
KW - Meaning making
KW - Professional athletes
KW - Sport-related injury
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068237197&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1123/tsp.2018-0069
DO - 10.1123/tsp.2018-0069
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AN - SCOPUS:85068237197
SN - 0888-4781
VL - 33
SP - 110
EP - 118
JO - Sport Psychologist
JF - Sport Psychologist
IS - 2
ER -