Growing into “Us”: Trajectories of Social Identification with College Sport Teams Predict Subjective Well‐Being

Objective: With the underlying rationale that social identification is related to psychological health and well-being, we aimed to understand how social connections and group structure within college club sport teams relate to students’ perceptions of social identification.Method: We sampled 852 student-athletes from 35 intact same-sex college club sport teams. Using social network analyses derived from teammates’ reports of connections with one another (i.e., time spent outside of sport, and teammate friendships), we computed: outdegree centrality (i.e., self-reported connections with teammates), indegree centrality (i.e., nominations from others), and group-level density. Multilevel models were fit to test the relative effects of outdegree centrality, indegree centrality, and group-level team density on athletes’ social identification strength.Results: Outdegree centrality, indegree centrality, and team density were all positively related to the strength of athletes’ social identification with their sport team. Examining model results step-by-step, incoming nominations of social connections (i.e., indegree) were associated with social identification beyond the effects of self-reported outdegree centrality. Furthermore, team-level density was significantly related to social identification after accounting for the individual-level effects of centrality.Conclusion: Sport is a domain where participants can build social connections with peers, and sport groups offer a salient source for social identification. The current findings indicate that athletes who have greater social connections with teammates may form a stronger sense of social identification. Alongside theoretical contributions to a social identity approach to studying small groups, the current study highlights the utility of studying small groups using social network methodologies.

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Rural community well-being through minor league sport

Sport Business and Management An International Journal ◽

10.1108/sbm-10-2018-0092 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 328-343

Author(s):

Young Do Kim ◽

Marshall J. Magnusen ◽

Anthony Weaver ◽

Minjung Kim

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Rural Community ◽

Well Being ◽

Psychological Responses ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Content Type ◽

Sport Team ◽

Minor League ◽

Sport Teams ◽

A Minor

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how small-town residents’ perceptions of a minor league sport team’s socially responsible initiatives (SRI) influence several psychological responses to SRI, including feelings of gratitude, subjective well-being, place attachment and community pride. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional, survey-based research design was employed to empirically assess the effects of SRI on positive psychological responses in the context of a minor league sport team located in a rural community. The data set used in this study included a convenience sample of 307 small-town residents. Findings Residents of the rural community did perceive and feel grateful for their minor league sport team’s SRI. Grateful residents experienced higher levels of subjective well-being (happiness, pleasure and satisfaction) as well as enhanced community pride and attachment due to the local sport team’s altruistic and prosocial behaviors. Research limitations/implications This study’s findings shed light on a critical function and benefit of a minor league sport team in rural communities. Emotionally valued prosocial efforts enhance the well-being of residents in rural communities. Thus, a reasonable course of action for local community leaders and public-sector organizations is to invest in and create partnership opportunities with their local minor league sport teams. Such efforts can turn sport teams into leverageable assets that can help promote healthy and sustainable communities for current residents as well as future generations. Originality/value A contribution of this study is the integration of the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to better understand how gratitude mediates the relationship between SRI and beneficial community-focused outcomes such as pride, attachment and well-being.

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Conflict Avoidance in Old Age

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000168 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 61-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lia Oberhauser ◽

Andreas B. Neubauer ◽

Eva-Marie Kessler

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Perceived Social Support ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Conflict Avoidance ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Adult Lifespan ◽

Set Up

Abstract. Conflict avoidance increases across the adult lifespan. This cross-sectional study looks at conflict avoidance as part of a mechanism to regulate belongingness needs ( Sheldon, 2011 ). We assumed that older adults perceive more threats to their belongingness when they contemplate their future, and that they preventively react with avoidance coping. We set up a model predicting conflict avoidance that included perceptions of future nonbelonging, termed anticipated loneliness, and other predictors including sociodemographics, indicators of subjective well-being and perceived social support (N = 331, aged 40–87). Anticipated loneliness predicted conflict avoidance above all other predictors and partially mediated the age-association of conflict avoidance. Results suggest that belongingness regulation accounts may deepen our understanding of conflict avoidance in the second half of life.

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Leisure Activities and the Subjective Well-Being of Older Adults in Croatia

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000179 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 31-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan ◽

Tihana Brkljačić ◽

Zvjezdana Prizmić Larsen ◽

Andreja Brajša-Žganec ◽

Renata Franc

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Leisure Activity ◽

Later Life ◽

Perceived Health ◽

Well Being ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Financial Status

Abstract. Research shows that engagement in leisure activities promotes well-being among older adults. The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between subjective well-being (flourishing) and leisure activities (total number of different activities in the previous year) in a sample of older adults in Croatia, thereby considering the variables of sex, marital status, financial status, and self-perceived health. The differences in the examined variables between the groups of older adults who reported to be engaged in new activities with those who did not were also examined. The sample of N = 169 older adults aged 60 years and above was drawn from a convenience sample of adult internet users in Croatia. Participants reported their self-perceived health and the number of leisure activities they engaged in over the previous year as well as completing the Flourishing Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that older adults who were engaged in more various leisure activities, who perceived better financial status, and who were married reported higher levels of flourishing. A comparison of the two groups of older adults with and without engagement in leisure activities showed that those engaged in at least one leisure activity were more likely to be women, reported higher levels of flourishing, and perceived their own financial status as better. This study indicated that engaging in leisure activities in later life might provide beneficial effects for the well-being of older adults.

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Intraindividual Variability and Stability of Affect and Well-Being

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000094 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 185-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Christina Röcke ◽

Annette Brose

Keyword(s):

Age Differences ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Emotional Experiences ◽

Short Term ◽

Regulatory Processes ◽

Functional Implications ◽

Methodological Approaches ◽

Underlying Processes

Whereas subjective well-being remains relatively stable across adulthood, emotional experiences show remarkable short-term variability, with younger and older adults differing in both amount and correlates. Repeatedly assessed affect data captures both the dynamics and stability as well as stabilization that may indicate emotion-regulatory processes. The article reviews (1) research approaches to intraindividual affect variability, (2) functional implications of affect variability, and (3) age differences in affect variability. Based on this review, we discuss how the broader literature on emotional aging can be better integrated with theories and concepts of intraindividual affect variability by using appropriate methodological approaches. Finally, we show how a better understanding of affect variability and its underlying processes could contribute to the long-term stabilization of well-being in old age.

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