Studying the Effective Factors on the Professional Identity of Athletes in National Teams

The present study was conducted to investigate the effective factors on the professional identity of national team athletes. This study was a mixed study in terms of the methodology. The statistical population for the qualitative part of the study included 13 experts from the field of research, and the statistical population for the quantitative part included all the athletes of the national teams of Iran in different sports fields, with no detailed information on their numbers. As such, 200 of these individuals were identified as available participants. The data collection was done through conduction of interview and using the questionnaire. The qualitative results of the research showed that, 24 factors were extracted from the interviews, which were classified into four categories: team, technical, individual, and family-friends. The results showed that, all identified factors had a significant effect on the professional identity of national team athletes. Meanwhile, the effect of individual factors on the professional identity of national team athletes was more than other factors.