Is There a Basis for the Notion of Athletic Identity?

Just as identity is a complex multidimensional construct, so “athletic identity ” is likely to consist of a constellation of attributes. The present study explored relations between athletic identity, as measured by the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS: Brewer, Raalte, & Linder, 1993) and aspects of self-concept, as measured by the Self-Description Questionnaire III (SDQ: Marsh, 1989). The participants in the study were 917 athletes (476 females) on sporting scholarships linked with the Australian Institute of Sport and were therefore a group for whom the term “athletic identity ” has strong relevance. The SDQ requires respondents to rate the accuracy and importance of characteristics as self-descriptors. No relationships were found between AIMS athletic identity and accuracy scores on SDQ sporting self-concept but there were gender-linked relationships between athletic identity and different aspects of SDQ academic self-concept. For the SDQ importance ratings, significant relationships were observed between athletic identity and sporting self-concept for both genders and also between athletic identity and verbal self-concept for females. We discuss what the findings mean for the notion of athletic identity