Exploring Temporal Changes In Exercise Behavior, Perceived Fitness, And Identity In Former High School Athletes

Abstract

While exercise promotion is recommended to preserve athletes’ post-sport transition quality, specific understanding of behavioral changes after retirement is unknown and necessary for program development. PURPOSE: Document temporal changes to exercise behavior, perceived fitness, and identity in former high school athletes (FHSAs) entering college, understand their exercise experiences, and explain why observed changes occurred using mixed methods. METHODS: Over their freshman year, FHSAs completed 8 online surveys assessing bodyweight, perceived fitness (Likert scale 1-5), self-reported exercise, perceived barriers (Likert scale 1-5), and identity (Likert scale 1-7). Responses were analyzed using hierarchical mixed modeling procedures, idiographic visual analysis, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). A subsample completed semi-structured interviews incorporating their survey data, which underwent thematic analysis. RESULTS: As a group, FHSAs (N=35, 7 men, 18±0 years) exhibited no statistically significant changes in any primary outcomes, but idiographic analyses revealed substantial intra-individual variation. Most variables demonstrated “poor”-“fair” consistency (ICC .271-.654); only bodyweight (ICC=.987), athlete identity (ICC=.788), and exercise identity (ICC=.898) exhibited “good”-“excellent” consistency. Interviews (n=14) yielded 5 themes: adapting to transition, from “athlete” to “athletic exerciser”, motivational determinants to exercise, within-person pre-condition, and environment. CONCLUSION: FHSAs maintained relatively high levels of exercise, identity, and ‘good’ fitness perceptions as a group. However, noted variability from participants’ time devoted to schoolwork, exercise-specific social supports, and COVID-19 restrictions suggests individual responses were not represented by average values. FHSAs’ sports backgrounds provided exercise-related competence and self-regulatory abilities, but made balancing fitness expectations and losses difficult. Future directions should explore other former athlete populations’ behavior, ways of nurturing FHSA’s exercise-related competence and self-regulation, and the cyclical relationship conceptualized from interviews between participants’ exercise and identity.