Career Decision Making among SUKMA Athletes: the Influence of Demographic Factors, Athletic Identity, and Social Support

Low, Min Xuan (2023) Career Decision Making among SUKMA Athletes: the Influence of Demographic Factors, Athletic Identity, and Social Support. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Athletes are required to make decisions, pertaining not only to their athletic performance, but also to their careers (Fogarty & McGregor-Bayne, 2008). This is carried out in order to get players to prepare for eventualities like career terminations because we are aware that the athletic career is shorter than other occupations, and the percentage for the athletes to become a professional athlete as a career is also very low. This explains the importance of career planning in all athletes, and the career decision making among athletes is generally tough, because they are supposed to decide their career path based on their interest and qualifications. This study will be focusing on the population of SUKMA athletes, which includes athletes that are talented and passionate about their sports. The level of athletic identity and perceived social support in SUKMA athletes will be assessed to test impact to career decision making. The target population is SUKMA athletes from Johor because they are the champions of the latest SUKMA competition which means that the athletes have a high level of commitment in training. Moreover, factors such as gender, experience, scholarship, sports type, and more are also included to determine the influence of each factor on career decision making. The findings of this research showed that athletic identity and social support have an influence on career decision making in SUKMA Johor athletes. It showed that goal selection and self-appraisal are the important factors that coaches and future program developers have to pay attention to because it contributes to the career development of athletes. Other than that, sporting level (state players (M=3.75, SD= 0.42) and national players (M= 3.99, SD= 0.99) ; t(44.12)= -1.478, p= 0.041), academic level (F(2, 124)= 20.308, p= <0.001), and gender (males (M=4.01, SD= 0.52) and females (M= 3.96, SD= 0.37) ; t(122.56)= 0.629, p= 0.010) also have a correlation with career decision making.