Publication Date

Summer 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Gregory Feist; Christine Tzeng; Desia Bacon

Abstract

This study looked at how athletes adapt to life after competitive sports in relation to psychological issues. In publicly accessible podcast interviews, 95 former athletes, most competing at the collegiate or professional level, were examined using their own words. Claude and Gemini, two large multimodal models, independently coded each interview for four mental health outcomes: depression, anxiety, dependency, and identity confusion, as well as for a set of predictor variables, such as neuroticism, emotion regulation, athletic identity, identity foreclosure, intrinsic motivation, grit, social support, and retirement planning. A binary present or absence coding system was employed, and Gwet's AC1 was utilized to evaluate the two models' agreement. Four regression models were used to examine the predictors after the four outcomes were merged into a single mental health condition score. The best indicators of post retirement difficulties were neuroticism and identity foreclosure, with identity foreclosure predicting difficulty across two different models. While retirement planning, intrinsic motivation, and social support did not achieve significance, grittier athletes unexpectedly reported more difficulty, and stronger emotion regulation predicted less difficulty. The results imply that committing entirely to the athlete role, without exploring other parts of who you are, is a major risk factor for a harder transition, whereas maintaining ties to roles outside of sports facilitates a more seamless one.

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