Social-Ecological Determinants of Elite Student Athletes’ Dual Career Development in Hong Kong and Taiwan

• Main Authors: Raymond Kim Wai Sum, Hsiu-Hua Tsai, Amy Sau Ching Ha, Chih-fu Cheng, Fong-jia Wang, Minghui Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-05-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017707798

Previous research has encouraged a cultural specific framework to be developed through research in Asian countries, such as China, to help internationalize the findings and help athletes to adapt them to their society and culture. Based on a socioecological framework, this study investigated how social-ecological determinants affect elite student athletes’ (ESA) experience of the socialization process of dual career development in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We interviewed eight ESAs who trained at the national level, studying simultaneously at universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Grounded theory techniques and procedures were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that ESAs are affected by interrelated determinants at different levels: individual (career aims, identities, roles, characters, self-efficacy, and motivation), micro-level (coaches, teammates, parents, siblings, physical education [PE] teachers, other teachers, alumni, seniors, and classmates), meso-level (interrelations between individual and micro-level), exo-level (government, financial, policy, academic, medical, and parent–teacher association), macro-level (attitudes, norms, values, beliefs, resources, and culture), and chrono-level (transition).