STILL AN ATHLETE? AN EXPLORATION OF ATHLETE IDENTITY, BODY APPRECIATION, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FLOURISHING IN MIDDLE-AGED FORMER COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

Collegiate athletes, upon retirement, are encouraged to develop other interests outside of sport to form a well-rounded identity. Yet middle-aged people often struggle to complete recommended strength training and exercise guidelines, and many continue to struggle with body appreciation and psychological well-being beyond adolescence and young adulthood. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 482 former NCAA athletes completed the Athlete Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), Exercise Identity Scale (EIS), Body-Appreciation Scale (BAS-2), and Flourishing Scale (FS). The study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to determine if athlete or exercise identity positively affects body appreciation and psychological flourishing through the mediating variable of strength training. Results indicated modest positive effects between athlete and exercise identity on body appreciation and a medium effect of body appreciation on psychological flourishing. There was a very small partial mediation of strength training on the relationship between both athlete identity and exercise identity on body appreciation. Exploratory research questions also examined relationships between various demographics and AIMS, EIS, BAS-2, FS, and strength training frequency scores. This sample of former collegiate athletes is predominantly white (88%), mostly female (69%), and over-represented in cross-country runners (n = 146, 30% of the total sample), with high reports of athlete identity, exercise identity, body appreciation, and psychological flourishing. Since the population is not representative of all former collegiate athletes, interpretations generalizing findings must be done cautiously.