Role Commitment and Acceptance in a Sport Context

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to (a) develop a conceptualization of role acceptance, later situated within the broader concept of role commitment, pertinent to the sport environment; (b) develop a measure integrating direct perceptions of role commitment and the bases of this variable; and (c) determine if role commitment could predict athletes’ intentions to return. To accomplish these objectives, multiple methods were used across 4 projects that leveraged the extant literature on acceptance and commitment perceptions from sport and organizational psychology, engaged athletes in focus groups in a think-aloud protocol, and obtained responses on iterative versions of a new role-commitment questionnaire from over 700 athletes from a variety of competitive and developmental levels. Overall, this approach captured the bases of role commitment (affective, normative, and continuance perspectives), as well as direct perceptions of role commitment, and demonstrated an important link to intentions to return to sport.