Schmid Michael J, Oblinger-Peters Violetta, Örencik Merlin, Schmid Jürg, Conzelmann Achim, Ronkainen Noora J
Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Psychol Sport Exerc. 2025 Jan;76:102730. doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102730. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
People's subjective sense of meaning in life is a flourishing research topic in psychology but remains underexplored in sport psychology. This study uses a person-oriented method to shed light on meaning in the lives of elite athletes (i.e., latent profile analysis) to identify distinct profiles of sources of meaning in life, and compare the extent to which these profiles differ in relation to athletic identity, life satisfaction, and self-esteem. A sample of 593 Swiss elite athletes (50.4% women, 49.6% men; M = 24.78 years, SD = 4.93) participated in the study. The Meaning and Purpose Scales (MAPS) were used to assess athletes' perceptions of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and sources of meaning. Athletes demonstrated higher overall meaningfulness, lower crisis of meaning, and prioritized different sources of meaning compared to the general population. Latent profile analysis revealed three distinct meaning profiles: (1) athletes with multiple meanings (n = 351), (2) athletes with low meaning (n = 126), and (3) faith-based athletes (n = 110). Notably, the athletes in the first and last profile exhibited higher life satisfaction and self-esteem. The identified profiles demonstrate that athletes differ both in the degree and the types of meaning in life. The findings align with studies outside of sport that suggest that meaning in life, in addition to being an end-value in itself, is also related to enhanced life satisfaction and self-esteem. Personalized meaning-focused interventions can be valuable for applied practice with elite athletes.
人们对生活意义的主观感受是心理学中一个蓬勃发展的研究课题，但在运动心理学中仍未得到充分探索。本研究采用以人为本的方法，以揭示精英运动员生活中的意义（即潜在剖面分析），以识别生活意义来源的不同剖面，并比较这些剖面在运动身份、生活满意度和自尊方面的差异程度。593名瑞士精英运动员（50.4%为女性，49.6%为男性；平均年龄M = 24.78岁，标准差SD = 4.93）参与了该研究。使用意义与目的量表（MAPS）来评估运动员对意义、意义危机和意义来源的认知。与普通人群相比，运动员表现出更高的总体意义感、更低的意义危机，并优先考虑不同的意义来源。潜在剖面分析揭示了三种不同的意义剖面：（1）具有多种意义的运动员（n = 351），（2）低意义感的运动员（n = 126），以及（3）基于信仰的运动员（n = 110）。值得注意的是，第一种和最后一种剖面中的运动员表现出更高的生活满意度和自尊。所识别的剖面表明，运动员在生活意义的程度和类型上都存在差异。这些发现与运动领域之外的研究一致，表明生活意义除了本身是一种终极价值外，还与提高生活满意度和自尊有关。针对个人意义的干预措施对精英运动员的应用实践可能具有重要价值。
