The purpose of this study was to clarify contents of social supports provided by elite athletes to collegiate athletes, and to investigate the intentions of sport commitment for collegiate athletes focusing on the influence of elite athletes’ social support. Participants were 350 Japanese collegiate athletes (male: 270, female: 80, Age M=19.43±1.14). First, we developed a scale for assessing Japanese elite athletes’ social support behavior. The scale employed 2 factors (instrumental support and emotional support) and 10 items, and validity and reliability of the scale was confirmed. Secondly, we examined the relationship among elite athletes’ social support and intention of sports commitment in collegiate athletes, and the results indicated that both instrumental support and emotional support affected athletic identity, and athletic identity formed sport commitment for collegiate athletes. In addition, the results demonstrated that instrument support from elite athletes had a greater effect on collegiate athlete’ s athletic identity than emotional support. From the results, this study has clarified the features of social supports provided by elite athletes, and has shown the effectiveness of the intention of collegiate athlete’ s sport commitment.
