The initial development and validation of the Social Adaptability Skills Questionnaire: SASQ.

Changing clubs over the course of an athletic career may not always be easy, and this has raised questions about how these changes affect career development. However, few studies have focused on the process of adapting to a new club and the factors that lead to success or failure. To address this gap in the literature, we aimed to develop and provide the initial validation of a questionnaire designed to assess athletes' social adaptability skills (SAS). To do so, we conducted four studies, from the initial development stage to the final validation stage. In the first phase, we generated questionnaire items with clear content and face validity. The second phase explored the factor structure and reliability of the Social Adaptability Skills Questionnaire (SASQ). This was carried out with 543 young athletes in talent development through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which was validated with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The EFA yielded a 17-item, four-factor structure with good internal reliability (⍺ = 0.876). The CFA revealed that the model fit indices were acceptable (RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.809, TLI = 0.844, and GFI = 0.926). In addition, Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was applied to determine the predictive validity of SASQ resulting into identification of three classes (low achievers, average achievers, and high achievers) with four discriminating dimensions (coach, teammates, family, and club). The SASQ appears to be a promising psychometric instrument of potential usefulness for education and program reviews in applied settings and a measurement tool in talent development research.

The Problematic Experience of Players' Mutations Between Clubs: Discovering the Social Adaptability Skills Required.

Objective: During their career, most players working in professional team sports move from club to club. These transitions are not always completely successful and could highly impact the route of the players' development. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the psychological processes involved when players encounter problems in adapting from one club to another. Thus, it was the aim of this study to identify the most difficult aspects of these transitions, as experienced by team sports players and the psychological skills that contribute to successful outcomes. Design and Method: The present study included twenty professional basketball players (aged between 20 and 36 years old; Mean = 26.05, SD = 4.12), who had played under different coaches (coach range 4-15; Mean = 8.65, SD = 2.92), and also played for different clubs (range 3-10; Mean = 5.35, SD = 2.08). They took part in retrospective interviews regarding their embedded experiences during club to club transitions. A situated E-approach was used to identify their problematic experiences, the adaptability skills and how they are applied during club mutations. Results and Conclusions: The identification of problematic experiences revealed seven components in relation to coaching (e.g., obeying orders, reduced play time), three components with teammates (e.g., respect), two components with the club (e.g., lack of support), and three components with family/friends (e.g., geographical constraints). Additionally, results indicated that the adaptability skills used during mutation are related to three groups namely mental skills, learning methods, and interpersonal skills. The results provide coaches, players, sports psychologists, and national sport organizations a set of issues for understanding the challenges players encounter when they move from one club to another.

Individual differences in professional sport narrative experience during basketball players club mutation.

Due to the growing competitive challenges, athletes' mutation between clubs has emerged an area of interest within career development. However, studies aimed at analysing this specific process of adaptation to clubs that lead to success or failure in such career mutations are seldom. We developed a comprehensive understanding of the psychological mutation processes to clubs using a narrative level of McAdams' model of personality. The qualitative method approach used in the Big Three narrative framework (McLean et al., 2019) and good life stories standards (McAdams, 1996) were applied to uncover the components of the narratives of twenty professional basketball players during mutation between clubs. The current study sort to test the links between these narrative components and athlete successful club to club mutation (CCM-successful). On average, the results showed that the participants experienced richer narratives as compared to general population t (17.08) = -1.48, p < .05. Narratives in the CCM-successful were also richer (Mean = 2.83, SD = .16) as compared to narratives of the CCM-unsuccessful (Mean = 1.63, SD, = .36). The overall club mutation success correlated positively with exploratory processing, meaning-making and agency narrative components. These results suggest that when athletes develop active attitudes seeking for solution and sharing their experience with others, they may build the conditions of adaptability that corresponds to a successful outcome for their mutation. The participants exhibited flexible and proactive behaviours which rendered possible the appropriation of the elements in the environment that favour a positive experience of mutation.