Jana: This study uses the Cultural Transition Model as a framework to understand athletes’ adaptations to a new country and culture when moving transnationally in their careers. Could you briefly discuss the main aspects of this model?

Tatiana: As a psychological process, cultural transitions are bound by time and space. The Cultural Transition Model attempts to convey this by situating the transition process in a transnational field and by showing its three temporal phases: pre-transition, acute cultural adaptation, and sociocultural adaptation. However, it’s important to emphasize that the model does not intend to represent any individual transition in particular. It works as a pictorial representation of the psychological process that is not necessarily linear. First, there’s a pre-transition phase, and I think that this is a very important phase of intentionality. It can start as soon as the contemplation of a transnational career starts, such as when an athlete hears a story of a peer whose athletic career really took off after the player migrated to another country. And so, the athlete may then consider migrating to play abroad too. They may start thinking “what if,” explore opportunities that may exist, and as a result their migration becomes more real as they start taking some actions, such as talking with agents or with athletes who have gone through this process. The pre-transition phase is a very important part of the transition process, as it helps prepare for the transition itself. Then, we have an actual migration, which is the movement from one place to another. The phase right after the move is associated with acute cultural adaptation, when everything is different for the mover, which can be super challenging and mentally taxing. Here the athlete learns how to navigate and fit into the new culture, team, and organization. It is a phase of intensive psychological work of repositioning, meaning reconstruction, and negotiation of cultural practices. Finally, the transitioning athlete may find balance between their cultural identity and their experiences in the new destination space at the sociocultural adaptation phase. Depending on the subjective career and life goals, it’s quite possible that migrants will not even enter the third phase, sociocultural adaptation, as the time in the country may not be long enough.

Please note that I’m talking about the voluntary transition based on my research with transnational, semi-professional and professional athletes, for whom a cultural transition is anticipated and normative in their career projects.

Jana: Another important aspect of the model are the psychological mechanisms that help transnational athletes in this transition. Could you also talk about them?

Tatiana: Athlete migration refers to the physical movement from one place to another; and yet, migration is a socially and culturally constructed project. The meanings of bodies, objects, ideas, and practices are sustained by social relations and may as well vary from place to place. Hence, migrants need to negotiate meanings as they reimagine or reinscribe the taken for granted concepts into new forms of social and cultural organization. They also must find dynamic balance between one’s own and the receiving communities’ cultural norms and daily practices to support their wellbeing. The (re)construction of meanings and the negotiation of cultural practices occur in a synergy with social repositioning – that is, identification where one stands within new social relations as well as the transnational networks.

Jana: Does it mean that a cultural transition is constructed through the relationship with other people?

Tatiana: Exactly! Although it is ontologically situated in a migration event executed by an individual, the process is relational. It is important to acknowledge the sociocultural and structural fields that impact the processes of adaptation by enhancing or hindering acculturative agency.

Jana: That’s interesting because you’re talking about time; I could see how one could be going toward the sociocultural adaptation. But then a big life event happens, such as a change in an important source of social support or a breakup. Then, athletes may have to go through some of the acute adaptation again through social repositioning.

Tatiana: Yes, for instance, transnational student-athletes go simultaneously through athletic and educational transitions which are underpinned by a cultural transition and, therefore, a cumulative effect can be expected. Moreover, the transition process is not going to be linear. It will go through cycles. There are so many layers in the process.

Jana: This study also used a new scale to measure the challenges in transnational athletes’ adaptation, the Athlete Adaptation Inventory (AAI). Could you tell us about the development of this scale and what it measures?

Tatiana: One big motivation to develop this scale was that I had frequently seen athlete adaptation being treated mostly as athletic adaptation – in other words, separately from the adaptation to other life circumstances connected to migration. As we already discussed, a cultural transition is embedded in multiple social contexts constituting the athlete environment; therefore, I wanted to take a more holistic approach to understanding transnational athletes’ experiences. In addition, I was hoping to tease out the interplay between the athletic and non-athletic contexts in which a cultural transition is constructed. The latter has important practical implications for newcomers and receiving communities.

Jana: Speaking about the results, I noticed that general challenges in cultural adaptation outside the sport predicted quite strongly challenges in the sport setting. So, it seems like it was a necessary move to consider the adaptation as a whole and not just the sport-related challenges.

Tatiana: I agree, it speaks directly to constitutive dimensions of culture in the social life. There are so many cultural nuances, from how loud you talk to the food you find available to eat, which local athletes, coaches, and receiving communities take for granted because it’s not visible to them. It’s just normal. These cultural aspects are ingrained in the social structures, discourses, and interpersonal interactions influence the processes of adaptation, so that’s why I thought that we could at least explore the sport-related and general life/non-sport challenges, very broadly at first, to see whether non-sport challenges are associated with adaptation challenges in the sport. It could provide a platform to investigate the effect of cultural diversity in transitions on performance.

Jana: One of the goals of the study was to explore differences in adaptation by gender and sport type. What were the main findings in these comparisons?

Tatiana: There is a scarcity in research on gendered processes in athletic migration. To the best of my knowledge, our study was the first that investigated the association between transnational athletes’ gender and adaptation quantitatively. Significant gender differences were found in a total of seven items: female athletes reported more sport-related difficulties than male athletes, while men experienced more challenges than women solely outside of sport. An important finding was that women found it particularly challenging to interact with individuals in power, such as coaches, doctors, or universities.

Additionally, team sport athletes perceived adaptation as slightly more challenging than individual sport athletes. We did find it surprising since we expected that the social support that teams typically offer would mitigate the transitioning athletes’ difficulty of living away from family and friends. However, our findings indicate that navigating a new team culture with respect to norms, values, practices, and power ingrained in teams is not an easy task; hence, complex team dynamics may offset the potential benefits of team-based social support.

Jana: Yes, it’s going to be one more layer of adaptation, to adapt to the team and its dynamics. Considering these findings and what we know about the Cultural Transition Model, what advice would you give to sport psychology consultants working with transnational athletes who just moved to play in a new country?

Tatiana: My advice would not be based solely on this study, but on my long-lasting research in this area and certainly research of other colleagues. Ideally, I would hope that sport psychology consultants work with both transitioning athletes and the receiving environments, such as teams and sports clubs. Also, I would encourage all parties involved to practice accepting differences without moral judgment. It’s easier said than done because most of us cannot even accept ourselves. It’s a difficult concept to grasp, accepting differences without judgement.

Sport psychology consultants are in a privileged position to facilitate engagement of both sides, athletes and receiving environment, in respectful communication. While it is not possible for the receiving communities to solve the resettlement challenges, they play an important role in transnational athletes’ life story.

Jana: Yes, it makes sense. Sometimes we put the burden into the transitioning person to just adapt.

Tatiana: Yes, and in this sense, the new applied instrument may be very useful. If athletic organizations understand that migrant athletes’ adaptation and performance could be predicated on non-sport-related aspects, they can use the AAI checklist to identify what issues are difficult for their athletes. This in turn may help receivers to open a conversation although no instrument will help without a groundwork of establishing trust and cultural safety for the athletes to voice their concerns and be heard to begin with.

Jana: Makes sense. It sounds like the instrument could be good to give to the athletes to maybe open that communication but also, even for the receiving organization, to be aware of each of those items and try to facilitate their adaptation.

Tatiana: Absolutely. A lot of receiving environments do not understand the psychological work of cultural transitions which requires deliberate effort, energy, and time. All of them – time, energy, effort – are precious but limited commodities. Take transnational student-athletes whose quick adaptation is extremely important for their survival on the team (otherwise they are likely on the bench), but who also need to keep up with their studies to maintain their eligibility. For some migrants, these are only a tip of their adaptation iceberg. They just don’t have personal resources to do all what is required or expected of them. So, I agree that the checklist by sheer naming of the items may raise the awareness about how much mental power is poured into this process.

Jana: Thank you so much for participating in this interview. This is a really important topic!

Tatiana: You are welcome! It was great to discuss this topic. It is so complex, but I hope that I could share some valuable information.

Jana: You definitely did!