Happiness in active and retired athletes

Abstract

Elite athletes lead exceedingly complicated lives. When living under conditions of high demand and allostatic load, happiness may be seriously endangered. Even though many athletes initially feel relief after finishing their athletic career, some of them still suffer depressed mood. The aim of the study was to assess the level of happiness and the differences in happiness profile between active and retired elite athletes. Also, the sport discipline and social support were taken into consideration as factors influencing athletes’ happiness – a construct that reflects people’s subjective and global evaluations of their lives. 110 active and retired elite athletes from Poland filled in three psychological questionnaires, which reflect subjective happiness: the Flourishing Scale (FS) to assess core aspects of social-psychological functioning, The Emotional Wellness Scale (EWS) to assess the affective component of happiness and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) to assess the judgmental component of subjective well-being. No significant differences were found neither between active and retired athletes, nor between individual and team sport. However, we found significant influence of social support on both retired and active athletes’ happiness. These findings have implications for how well athletes cope with stress which, in turn, could shed light on the development of factors that may provide a buffer against adversity and build resilience.