Investigating the mechanisms of social support’s effects on sport-related outcomes: A social identity approach

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to conduct and report an original investigation into the mechanisms of social support’s effects upon sport-related outcomes using the social identity approach, with a view to better understand what constitutes effective social support. Chapter 1 provides an introduction and overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 provides a literature review of extant social support and social identity literature in sport. In Chapter 3, I report longitudinal relationships between stress, dimensions of perceived support, and social identification as temporal contributors to the development of burnout dimensions. In Chapter 4, I report the main and interactive effects of stress, dimensions of perceived support, and social identification upon dimensions of burnout. In Chapter 5, a large qualitative investigation was conducted to investigate how social identity influenced the design, provision, and receipt of social support in a Rugby Academy. Chapter 6 provides a summary of the findings, along with a general discussion of the findings’ implications, the thesis’ limitations and strengths, recommendations for future research, and commentary on the significance of the findings. Overall, this thesis makes several original contributions to knowledge, ultimately demonstrating that a range of social identity processes influence the mechanisms underpinning the design, provision, and receipt of social support. This is done in ways that can be both more or less adaptive depending on (a) the context (e.g. levels of stress and/or shared social identification, geography, etc.), (b) aspects of social support (e.g. perspective and dimension of social support), and (c) sport-related outcomes of interest (e.g. dimensions of burnout, whether the outcome is considered adaptive and/or meaningful to group members, etc.). These conclusions would emphasise that a better understanding of what constitutes effective social support could be gained by making bespoke (e.g. context-, dimension-, and outcome-specific) assessments and predictions of the identity-based implications behind social support.