The socialization process of elite male Iraqi athletes into sport roles

The socialization process of athletes into sport roles, in general, and elite athletes in particular, has received a great deal of attention from researchers and practitioners. At the heart of this research lie the psychological and sociological factors that are associated with sport involvement and how they, in turn, have influenced individuals' early socialization into sport and adherence to sport in later years. The major concern for this study was to determine how and why elite male Iraqi athletes have been socialized into sport roles, and how and why they have been committed to continued participation in sports.;Results of the present study revealed that: (1) Elite male athletes received the greatest amount of influence from peers in terms of their interest, participation, and encouragement of the athletes during both childhood and current participation in sport. (2) The athletes' siblings' and teachers and coaches' encouragement of the athletes' participation in sport was significantly related to the athletes' participation in sport. (3) Parents were found not to be significantly related to the athletes' participation in sport. (4) A significant relationship was found between the athletes' participation in sport and the availability of facilities and programs and sport teams in their immediate social environment. (5) There was a significant relationship between the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards associated with sport participation and the athletes' participation and commitment to sport. (6) Elite male athletes' current participation in sport was significantly related to their socio-economic status. (7) One of the significant findings in this regard was that the athletes reported "urge to excel" as the most important factor in their development into the elite level, while, the demands of both studying or working and participation in sport, were the most serious obstacles which they faced during their development in sport.;The subjects for this study were 60 male elite athletes who were participants in Iraqi National Teams in a variety of sporting events. A Model was developed from previous research concerning socialization into sport roles. The model was modified based on the results of this study. The data was collected by means of questionnaire. The data was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients. The objective of the analysis was to determine the relationship between the dependent variable (sport participation) and the independent variables (significant others, socializing situations, personal attributes, socio-economic status).