Sport Management Journal

An Analysis of the Iranian Elite Athletes’ Lifestyles

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Ehsan Mohamadi Turkmani 1
Hossein Moeini 2
Qodratullah Bagheri 3
Hasan Zarei Matin 4
Hossein Khanifar 4

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Sport Management, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, IRAN

2 Assistant Professor in Business Management, Hazrate Masoumeh University, Qom, IRAN

3 Associate Professor in Sport Management, College of Farabi, University of Tehran , Qom, IRAN

4 Professor in Management, College of Farabi, University of Tehran , Qom, IRAN

https://doi.org/10.22059/jsm.2021.219013.1714
Abstract
Lifestyle is a distinctive concept in modern societies. This mixed study aimed to analyze the Iranian elite athletes' lifestyle and offer a typology of their lifestyle. In the qualitative phase, 19 experts familiar with Iranian athletes' lifestyle had unstructured deep interviews; then, lifestyle components were identified using the Glaserian approach of the grounded theory. In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire with 64 items consisting of the codes of lifestyle components was designed and approved by 5 experts. Out of the statistical population (1574 premier league athletes in soccer, futsal, volleyball and basketball), 308 athletes completed the questionnaire by convenience and purposive sampling methods. The model measuring elite athletes’ lifestyle components was tested with confirmatory factor analysis in LISREL8.80 software and was fitted after modification. This model had 10 components: professional thinking, emotional competencies, life vision, financial literacy, responsibility, material consumption, cultural consumption tendencies, leisure, personal issues and religious behaviors. In addition, 5 dominant lifestyles among elite athletes were identified: consumerist, quotidian, beneficent, accountant and professional using cluster analysis in Spss23 software. Characteristics of each lifestyle were discussed by a review of the qualitative and quantitative findings. 
 

Keywords

Consumption
elite athlete
Glaserian approach
lifestyle
professional life
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Sport Management Journal
Volume 12, Issue 3
Autumn 2020
Pages 621-642

  • Receive Date 27 December 2016
  • Revise Date 02 April 2017
  • Accept Date 12 April 2017

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