Research on the Social Support of Athletes’ Career Transition in China: A Literature Review

Abstract

Being an athlete is not a lifelong career. 40% of Retired Athletes are facing difficulties with career transition each year in China. International studies have shown that despite the differences in the way each athlete responds to a career change, the success of career transition is often associated with the social support they received. Although the retirement often makes the social support
system for athletes to be broken or be disappeared, relinking or developing a new social support system affect the effective mobility of athletes’ old skills. Social support influences the adaptation process of the athletes’ career change. Most people advocate sharpening focus on the availability of social support, breaking through the influence of cultural traditions and promoting positive
empowerment orientation of social support. Relatively speaking, the domestic research on social support mainly focus on the vulnerable groups, such as the special study of the elderly, women, children, migrant workers, college students and laid-off workers. What’s more, the research on the social support for employment of vulnerable groups is beginning to increase. In the domestic and
foreign researches on the retirement and reemployment of athletes, the discourse of social support for athletes started to appear. But the research is mainly limited to the ‘physical education authority that lacks of discussions
on the action mechanism of social support for athlete career transition, takes static actions, and considers no cooperation and mutual assistance between relevant social support subjects or the dynamic mechanism of athletes. This article analyzes domestic and overseas social support theories, summarizes and analyzes the literature on the social support for career transition of Chinese athletes, and argues that the social support system built and improved can help athletes achieve a successful career transition, which is both related to the athletes’ reemployment quality and the cultivation and reserve of Chinese sports talents; the social support system for athlete career transition is a complex system, and diversified social supports require the use of government and market forces to break trade barriers and the empowerment to build and improve the
social support system for athlete career transition.