Background: This article presents the protocol for a randomised controlled trial designed to develop and evaluate a psychoeducational intervention aimed at preparing high-performance athletes for the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to retirement from sport. The protocol was developed through a literature review and consultations with experts in sports psychology and career transition. Methods: The study will be conducted at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Salamanca (Spain). High-performance athletes aged 30 or older who are close to retirement or who have retired in the last five years will be recruited. Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups: the intervention group, which will undergo a psychoeducational programme consisting of 12 sessions over 3 months; and the control group, which will receive a minimum educational programme of one session. All participants will complete initial and final assessments, as well as a 3-month follow-up, collecting sociodemographic data and applying various psychological, social and health assessment instruments. Discussion: This protocol describes a comprehensive psychoeducational intervention aimed at improving quality of life and attitudes towards retirement from sport, increasing life satisfaction, psychological flexibility, perceived social support, general health, self-efficacy and self-regulation, and reducing negative stereotypes associated with the end of a sporting career. The evidence generated will guide future interventions, policies, and educational programmes to promote a healthy, active, and satisfying transition to the post-sport stage.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
26
The program aims to facilitate a positive and healthy transition from elite sport to retirement. Its objectives include improving Quality of Life, Life Satisfaction, Psychological Flexibility, Perceived Social Support, Health, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Regulation, while simultaneously mitigating stereotypes associated with aging and the end of the sports career.
Participants will receive instructions and recommendations to facilitate a positive and healthy transition following retirement from elite sport. This minimally active intervention focuses on general guidelines for maintaining an active lifestyle and adapting to post-sport life, ensuring that the control group receives basic informational support without the structured psychoeducational sessions of the experimental group, which allows for an adequate comparison of effects.
Castilla y León, Salamanca, Salamanca 37005
Salamanca, Spain
World Health Organization Quality of Life Measure - Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF)
Quality of life. The range of scores is from 26 to 100 points. The higher the score, the better the quality of life.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Retirement Attitudes Scale (EAJ)
Attitudes towards retirement. The range of scores is from 20 to 140 points. The final scores indicate more negative attitudes the higher the value obtained
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)
Satisfaction with life. The range of scores is from 5 to 25 points. A higher score indicates that the person is generally satisfied with his/her life.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Questionnaire of Stereotypes towards Old Age (CENVE)
Stereotypes about ageing. The range of score is from 5 to 20 points. High scores indicate a high degree of belief in negative stereotypes of ageing.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
The acceptance and action questionnaire-II (AAQ-II)
Psychological inflexibility. The range of score is from 7 to 49 points. High scores indicate more psychological inflexibility.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
MOS Questionnaire of Perceived Social Support (MOS)
Perceived social support. The overall scores range from 20 to 100 points. The higher the score, the more social support the individual perceives.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)
Perceived general health. The overall scores range from 0 to 36 points. Higher scores correspond to a higher level of perceived health.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Generalised Self-Efficacy Scale (EAG)
Self-efficacy. Scores range from 10 to 40 points. Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-efficacy.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Self-Regulation Scale (EAR)
Self-regulation. Scores range from 7 to 35 points. Higher scores on the scale indicate a greater ability to control attention in the pursuit of goals, while lower scores may suggest difficulties in maintaining focus and attention to goals.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Athlete Retirement Questionnaire (ARQ)
This measure will allow assessing the degree of planning, retirement expectations, and knowledge of available resources-all predictive factors of a more satisfactory emotional and functional adjustment (Alfermann et al., 2004). This test consists of 35 items divided into three variables: reasons for retirement (11 items), difficulties encountered during retirement (11 items), and coping strategies (13 items). The questionnaire was translated into Spanish and adapted for active athletes. It shows a Cronbach's alpha of 0.87 for the ARQ retired athletes version and 0.84 for the ARQ active athletes version. The questionnaire consists of 37 and 31 items in each of its versions respectively, with closed-ended responses.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
It consists of 10 items each. Participants must indicate how much they have felt each affect on a five-point Likert scale (from 1 = not at all or very slightly to 5 = extremely) during the specified time period. The total for each scale is the summation of the scores given on the 10 items that comprise it, ranging from 10 to 50 points, where a higher score indicates a greater presence of the specific affect. The Spanish version reports high internal consistency, with a Cronbach's α of 0.87 for positive affect and 0.88 for negative affect (Vázquez et al., 2015).
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)
It was designed to detect anxiety and depression disorders in non-psychiatric hospital settings in patients whose symptoms were not contaminated by the symptomatology of a physical illness. It consists of 14 items grouped into two subscales with 7 items each, using a Likert-type response scale ranging from 0 to 3 points. The depression subscale is composed of items focused on anhedonia. The anxiety subscale is composed of items focused on psychic manifestations. The temporal reference for the test is the previous week. For scoring, separate scores are obtained for each of the subscales, using the following cut-off points: 0-7: normal; 8-10: probable case of anxiety or depression; 11-21: case of anxiety or depression. It possesses a Cronbach's α of 0.90 for the full scale, 0.84 for the depression subscale, and 0.85 for the anxiety subscale.
Time frame: Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
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