Athletes’ perceptions about the availability of social support during within-career transitions

Abstract

Research suggests that social support can enable athletes to successfully adapt to the difficulties associated with athletic transitions. The present study examines athletes' perceptions about the availability of social support from their parents, coaches and teammates during normative within-career transitions from junior to senior level in their respective clubs. Seventy male university student-athletes aged 20.06; ±1.74 years completed the Perceived Available Support in Sport Questionnaire (Freeman et al., 2011). A one-way repeated measures ANOVA indicated some significant differences among the availability of support from parents, coaches and teammates. Overall, coaches were significantly perceived to provide more social support than teammates. Several significant effects were also found between the availability of each of the four types of social support (emotional, esteem, informational and tangible support) across the three providers. Findings suggest that parents, coaches and teammates in diverse ways play vital roles in the provision of social support to athletes at the developmental stage who are faced with normative within-career transition from junior level to senior level.