Objectives: The present study explored exercise attitudes and behaviours among retired female collegiate athletes.
Design: A survey design incorporating both closed and open-ended questions was adopted.
Method: A total of 218 former NCAA Division I female athletes (n = 144 gymnastics; n = 74 swimming/diving) provided details on their current exercise behaviours and their thoughts regarding exercise since retiring from collegiate sport.
Results: No relations were found between years since retirement and athletes’ current exercise frequency, types of exercise activities, and reasons for exercising. Despite reporting activity levels consistent with recommendations (5 days/week, 1 hour per session), retired athletes remained dissatisfied with their activity levels and struggled to integrate exercise alongside occupational, academic and social demands.
Conclusions: Athletes may require support in adapting to an independent and less intense exercise regime on retirement. Future research may look to explore exercise attitudes and behaviours among retired athletes from a longitudinal perspective.
Funding
This study was part of a larger investigation funded by the National Collegiate Athletic Association Sport Science Institute.
History
School
Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Psychology of Sport and Exercise
Volume
29
Pages
111-115
Citation
PLATEAU, C.R., PETRIE, T.A. and PAPATHOMAS, A., 2017. Exercise attitudes and behaviours among retired female collegiate athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 29, pp. 111–115.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Acceptance date
2017-01-04
Publication date
2017-01-05
Notes
This paper was published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.01.001.