A badge, a part of my history and also a root: A longitudinal qualitative exploration of the social identity model of identity change in retired elite athletes
Ye Zhang, S. Alexander Haslam, Catherine Haslam, Niklas K. Steffens
{"title":"A badge, a part of my history and also a root: A longitudinal qualitative exploration of the social identity model of identity change in retired elite athletes","authors":"Ye Zhang, S. Alexander Haslam, Catherine Haslam, Niklas K. Steffens","doi":"10.1111/bjso.70005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Athlete retirement involves substantial identity changes and psychological challenges. This longitudinal qualitative study explored the experiences of 16 recently retired elite Chinese athletes using the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC). Semi-structured interviews were conducted within 3 months of retirement (T1) and 1 year later (T2), with reflexive thematic analysis applied to examine the dynamic relationship between social identity change and adjustment. Key themes highlighted the processes related to SIMIC in sports retirement: (a) identity loss impacting adaptation to new roles, (b) identity continuity achieved through identity remigration (strengthening connection with past group identity) and identity remooring (forming new identities related to previous ones), (c) challenges and advantages of identity gain, (d) the impact of identity aspiration to gain or maintain group membership and (e) ways in which similarity in group contexts increases group compatibility. Findings revealed that while athletes experienced distress from identity loss at T1, social support from existing group memberships mitigated these effects through identity remigration. By T2, identity continuity and compatibility between old and new group memberships, supported by group context similarity, became critical to adjustment to new roles. These findings extend SIMIC in novel ways and can inform support programmes for retiring athletes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"64 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.70005","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.70005","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Athlete retirement involves substantial identity changes and psychological challenges. This longitudinal qualitative study explored the experiences of 16 recently retired elite Chinese athletes using the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC). Semi-structured interviews were conducted within 3 months of retirement (T1) and 1 year later (T2), with reflexive thematic analysis applied to examine the dynamic relationship between social identity change and adjustment. Key themes highlighted the processes related to SIMIC in sports retirement: (a) identity loss impacting adaptation to new roles, (b) identity continuity achieved through identity remigration (strengthening connection with past group identity) and identity remooring (forming new identities related to previous ones), (c) challenges and advantages of identity gain, (d) the impact of identity aspiration to gain or maintain group membership and (e) ways in which similarity in group contexts increases group compatibility. Findings revealed that while athletes experienced distress from identity loss at T1, social support from existing group memberships mitigated these effects through identity remigration. By T2, identity continuity and compatibility between old and new group memberships, supported by group context similarity, became critical to adjustment to new roles. These findings extend SIMIC in novel ways and can inform support programmes for retiring athletes.
期刊介绍：
The British Journal of Social Psychology publishes work from scholars based in all parts of the world, and manuscripts that present data on a wide range of populations inside and outside the UK. It publishes original papers in all areas of social psychology including: • social cognition • attitudes • group processes • social influence • intergroup relations • self and identity • nonverbal communication • social psychological aspects of personality, affect and emotion • language and discourse Submissions addressing these topics from a variety of approaches and methods, both quantitative and qualitative are welcomed. We publish papers of the following kinds: • empirical papers that address theoretical issues; • theoretical papers, including analyses of existing social psychological theories and presentations of theoretical innovations, extensions, or integrations; • review papers that provide an evaluation of work within a given area of social psychology and that present proposals for further research in that area; • methodological papers concerning issues that are particularly relevant to a wide range of social psychologists; • an invited agenda article as the first article in the first part of every volume. The editorial team aims to handle papers as efficiently as possible. In 2016, papers were triaged within less than a week, and the average turnaround time from receipt of the manuscript to first decision sent back to the authors was 47 days.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
