| 1. |
- Defruyt, Simon, et al.
(författare)
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Helping dual career athletes to recover from injury : a dual career support providers’ (DCSPs’) perspective
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- IntroductionThe combination of elite sport and study, called a dual career (DC), can be challenging for athletes. DC Athletes can encounter co-occurring challenges at different domains of development (athletic, psychological, psychosocial, educational/vocational and financial) (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004). In this challenging period and environment, the burden of an injury is likely to be stressful for DC athletes. Although previous research have looked at how sports stakeholders can support the athletes within the athletic domain, no research up to our knowledge addressed how elite athletes can be supported holistically (i.e. in the different domains of development) outside of the club context. Therefore, current research aimed at gathering good practices of holistic support for DC athletes from a dual career support provider (DCSP) perspective.MethodsWithin the ‘Gold in education and Elite Sport’ (GEES) project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, focus groups were conducted with a selection of DCSPs. As inclusion criterion for the participants, a DCSP was defined as: ‘a professional consultant, related to an educational institute and/or an elite sport organization – or certified by one of those – that provides support to elite athletes in view of optimizing their DC (combination of elite sport and education).’ One focus group in Sweden with six DCSPs and two focus groups in Belgium with two and three DCSPs were held. Using a phenomenological approach, participants were asked to share their methods used to holistically support DC athletes in coping with an injury.ResultsFive main themes of support emerged from the DCSPs discussions: a) practical support (e.g. support with transport problems if necessary), b) emotional support (e.g. empathic listening), c) reframing the injury in a holistic perspective (e.g. athletes will have more time for studies and family), d) empowerment of self-regulation competences (e.g. encourage the use of a recovery agenda), e) multidisciplinary and multi-organizations’ cooperation (e.g. structural meetings between different DC stakeholders).ConclusionFindings underscore the importance of a developmental and empowering approach in holistically supporting DC athletes to recover from an injury. Moreover, the cooperation between stakeholders in a DC support environment is crucial for an optimal recovery. Future research and practice could use current findings to develop injury recovery programs in a DC setting.ReferencesWylleman P, Lavallee D. (2004). A Developmental Perspective on Transitions Faced by Athletes. In M Weis (Ed.), Developmental sport psychology. Morgantown, WV: Fitness International Technology.
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| 2. |
- Ekengren, Johan, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Moving to Play Abroad : Experiences of Transnational Team Handball Players
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many athletes strive to excel in their sport, dreaming of fame and fortune, aiming for a career as a professional athlete. In the Nordic countries, becoming professional often implies a migration across national borders. In this relocation, it is not only crucial for transnational athletes to adapt in sport, a cultural and psychological adaptation is also needed (Ryba, Haapanen, Mosek, & Ng, 2012; Agergaard & Ryba, 2014). The purpose of this study was to examine team handball players’ experiences of their first transition and adaptation to a professional league in a foreign country, with a specific focus on their perceived demands and coping strategies. Participants were 18 senior elite team handball players (10 male, 8 female). During narrative-type interviews participants were encouraged to tell their story, focusing on how they experienced their first transnational transition. Participants’ narratives were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013), themes and patterns of meaning were identified. The four major themes of perceived transition demands were: ‘Learn new cultural and social codes’, ‘Adjust to the rules of the new club’, ‘Accept the result focused environment’, ‘Acknowledge your role and play it’. Three themes of coping strategies were: ‘Embrace the challenge’ (e.g., be aware of the new context, negotiate and adapt to new norms and expect the unexpected) ‘Embrace yourself’ (e.g., to care for and prioritize yourself in a self-centered, but still positive way) and ‘Embrace your demons’ (e.g., accept feelings of doubt and anxiety and carry on regardless of them). Based on the research findings recommendations will be provided for psychological support of transnational athletes in their transition and adaptation abroad.
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| 3. |
- Franck, Alina, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Athletic and Student Identities of Swedish Adolescent Student-Athletes : Mixed-Method Exploration
- 2013
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Ingår i: Abstracts of the ISSP 13<sup>th</sup> World Congress of Sport Psychology. - Beijing. ; , s. 153-154
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The overall aim of the project was to explore Swedish adolescent student-athletes’ transition to, and adaptation at, national elite sport schools (NESS) based on the holistic lifespan perspective (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) and career transition framework (Stambulova, 2003). Transitional variables (e.g., demands, coping strategies, personal and environmental resources,) covering student athletes’ sport, studies, and private life were studied in line with their athletic and student identities. This presentation will particularly focus on how student-athletes’ dual career experiences affect their athletic and student identities during their first year at NESS. Participants (main sample) were first year student-athletes of 15-16 years old representing different sports and 33 NESS across the country. A longitudinal mixed-method research design was implemented with the first quantitative measurement conducted in autumn (n = 261), and the second measurement in spring (n = 250). Athletic and student identities were measured using the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS; Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993) and the Student Identity Measurement Scale (SIMS; Engström & Stambulova, 2010). Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants from the main sample two times during the year (autumn and spring). Interview guides were structured in three parts exploring student athletes’ near past (e.g., previous experiences of combining sport, studies and private life or the dual career experiences between the two interviews), present status in the transition (e.g., demands, coping strategies, perception of themselves as students and athletes), and future expectations. The results of both quantitative and qualitative exploration of the student-athletes’ identity issue can be summarized as follows: (1) no significant changes were found in athletic and student identities between the two quantitative measurements, however, athletic identity was significantly higher than student identity in both measurements, (2) interviews confirmed that student-athletes perceived themselves to have higher athletic than student identity but also that inter-individual variations in their perceptions existed, (3) there were intra-individual differences in how student-athletes perceived their self-identities between the first and the second interview, (4) there was a clear message from the interviews that searching for an optimal balance between student and athlete roles and also between athletic and student identities was perceived as a key issue in adjusting to the dual career at NESS. The participants’ narratives will be used to illustrate the complexity of student-athletes’ perception of their athletic and student identities.
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| 4. |
- Henriksen, Kristoffer, et al.
(författare)
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A holistic ecological approach to sport and study : The case of an athlete friendly university in Denmark
- 2020
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Ingår i: Psychology of Sport And Exercise. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 1469-0292 .- 1878-5476. ; 47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Dual career development environments (DCDEs) exist to support student-athletes in their endeavours to combine sport with education or work. Such environments are likely to vary in their structure, processes, philosophy, and degree of efficiency. With the overall aim of applying the holistic ecological approach (Henriksen, Stambulova & Roessler, 2010) to the study of DCDEs, the objectives of the present study are: (a) to provide a holistic description of a Danish athlete-friendly university as a DCDE, and (b) to investigate the factors influencing the environment’s effectiveness. Methodology: Based on two working models, the study takes a case study approach and a real-time perspective and uses multiple sources of data (interviews, observations, and documents). Results: Two empirical models summarize the findings and portray the DCDE as: (1) centred on a dual career (DC) support team that serves to support communication and coordination between the sport, study, and private domains; (2) focused on providing individual solutions for each athlete; (3) teaching student-athletes to plan, prioritize, communicate, and take responsibility for the balance in their DC endeavour; and (4) deeply rooted in a shared DC philosophy that puts sport first and recognizes that the student-athletes must be seen as whole persons. Conclusion: Researcher-practitioners in the DC context are encouraged to focus not only on the challenges and coping strategies of the individual student-athletes but to understand and (if necessary) optimize the entire environment around them. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 5. |
- Linnér, Lukas, 1985-
(författare)
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Athletes' dual careers in a changing world : A Scandinavian perspective
- 2022
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Ingår i: Book of abstracts - SVEBI 2022. ; , s. 63-63
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Grounded in the Scandinavian context and by sharing research findings, good practice examples and recommendations for support, this symposium aims to facilitate understanding of athletes’ dual career (DC) experiences in the process of maintaining balance in the face of challenge, or even global crises. The need to safeguard athletes’ development by facilitating the balance between sport and education has been highlighted by the European Union guidelines on DCs of athletes (2012), and research has since developed and flourished (Stambulova & Wylleman, 2019). After a brief introduction by the organizer the symposium is structured keeping in mind a developmental perspective and moving from research to practice. Researchers and practitioners across three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) will collectively share knowledge throughout athletes’ DCs in relation to childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and from primary to secondary/high school and university level.
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| 6. |
- Linnér, Lukas, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Development of a system of dual career support for university student-athletes : Swedish national dual career guidelines
- 2019
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Ingår i: Abstract book. ; , s. 281-281
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2012 the European Commission issued European guidelines on dual careers (DC) of athletes to inspire “the formulation and adoption of action-oriented national dual career guidelines and to raise awareness at national level about the concept of dual careers” (p.3). In parallel with the ongoing expansion of the Swedish DC system to include the higher education level, the Swedish Sports Confederation initiated a working group to develop a system of DC support at Swedish National Sports Universities (RIUs) and Elite Sports-friendly Universities (EVLs) summarized in the Swedish national DC guidelines (2018). The working group consisted of four practitioners representing RIUs/EVLs (e.g., DC-coordinators, study counsellors), two Swedish DC researchers, and two officials of the Swedish Sports Confederation. Six two-day working group meetings were conducted during two years (2016-2018) to develop this policy document as a culturally informed synthesis of national and international DC research, EU guidelines on DCs, experiences and knowledge from RIUs and EVLs including best practice examples, and in line with the Swedish strategy for Sports. The Swedish national DC guidelines outline the organizational model for RIUs and EVLs and provide 36 guidelines in how to facilitate (a) an environment for DCs, (b) academic development, (c) athletic development, (d) a balance between sport, studies and private life, and (e) student-athletes’ career transitions. The Swedish national DC guidelines currently set a national standard for DC support across the country and inspire universities to further develop their support in line with recommendations from national and international DC research.
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| 7. |
- Linnér, Lukas, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Dual Career Balance in Student-Athletes University Transition
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Balancing studies, a personal life and sports, that is, having a dual career, is considered as a challenge associated with transitional demands in athletic and non-athletic (psychological, psychosocial, academic/vocational, financial) domains (Wylleman, Reints, & De Knop, 2013). The aim of this study was to investigate student-athletes’ university transition with a specific focus on how student-athletes balance different domains of their lives. Twenty-three Swedish university student-athletes (mean age= 21.52; 16 males and 7 females) representing six sports (equestrianism, golf, handball, ice hockey, soccer, table tennis) partook in the study. Participants completed the Dual Career Monitoring Survey (DCMS), weekly, over the first twelve weeks of their university education. The DCMS is developed by the authors and measures student-athletes perceptions of balance, time investments, demands, coping, satisfaction, resources and barriers in relation to sport, studies, private life, social life and financial situation. In exploring student-athletes’ perception of dual career balance throughout the twelve weeks, an intra-class correlation analysis revealed a between-person variance of 0.14 (14%). That is, with regards to balance in their dual careers 86% was due to within-person variance, suggesting that balance is idiosyncratic and that further analysis should investigate within-person change. Encouraged by these findings we continued with a person-centered analysis using the Dynamic P-technique for modeling patterns of data (Nelson, Aylward, & Rausch, 2011). The relationships between changes in balance (i.e., prioritizing sport, studies or other domains of life), demands, coping and satisfaction throughout the twelve weeks will be presented. Our findings contribute to the understanding of balance as a central tenet of athletes’ dual careers (Second author et al., 2015). From our findings we suggest practitioners to take into account the individual dynamics in dual career balance from a whole-person perspective.
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| 8. |
- Linnér, Lukas, 1985-
(författare)
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Dual Careers of Swedish University Student-Athletes : A Synthesis of Holistic Developmental and Ecological Approaches
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish dual career (DC) system has a history of providing support at the gymnasium/upper secondary level since the early 1970s. Since 2012, there has been a call from the European Union to member states to develop a support provision throughout athletes’ DCs based on national research. In 2015, the Swedish DC system was expanded to include the university level. Completed in parallel with this development, the aim of this PhD Project has been to study the DC experiences of Swedish university student-athletes from the holistic developmental and the holistic ecological approaches, and to develop a framework for DC support at university level in Sweden. The dissertation is designed as a collection of four studies, with one article per study. In Study I (part of the Erasmus+ project Gold in Education and Elite Sport; GEES), Swedish university student-athletes’ personal resources and coping strategies, known also as DC competences, are explored in relation to challenging DC scenarios (e.g., Miss days of study). Findings for example showed a general need to develop competences to cope successfully with the DC. In Study II the move from exploring demands across student-athletes’ levels of development to integration of demands in DC scenarios, as initiated in the GEES-project, was continued. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six student-athletes with the aim to identify DC scenarios that influenced university student-athletes’ DC balance and factors involved in the coping process. Seven scenarios were identified. An updated definition of DC scenarios and their taxonomy was suggested. Study III (part of the Erasmus+ project Ecology of Dual Career) shifted the attention from the individual to the environment and explored the features of a successful DC development environment (DCDE) at a Swedish university from the holistic ecological approach. The structure and key relationships in the DCDE, for example, coach-to-student-athlete, and the factors influencing the DCDE effectiveness, for example, a DC-support team with a shared DC philosophy, were described.Study IV combined the holistic ecological and holistic developmental approaches through a mixed-methods case study to describe how a DCDE at a Scandinavian university facilitated their student-athletes’ DC transition. The findings suggested that effective DCDEs work to meet student-athletes’ needs by helping them to develop DC competences to create and maintain an optimal DC balance.This PhD Project contributes to the DC research and assistance within the athlete career sport psychology discourse and to the knowledge basis for the continued development of the Swedish DC system. Derived from Studies I-IV and related research, the DC assistance (DCA) framework is presented integrating whole person, whole career, and whole environment perspectives. The DCA framework is aimed at guiding professional DC practice towards helping student-athletes develop and maintain optimal DC balance to facilitate their striving for career excellence, and by means contribute to more sustainable DCs for student-athletes across Swedish sports universities.
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| 9. |
- Linnér, Lukas, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Facilitating sport and university study : The case of a dual career development environment in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology. - Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics. - 2470-4857 .- 2470-4849. ; 4:1, s. 95-107
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This case study of a dual career development environment (DCDE) was informed by the holistic ecological approach (HEA) and aimed at: (a) providing a holistic description of a DCDE at university level in Sweden, and (b) investigating the perceived factors influencing the environment’s effectiveness in facilitating the development of student-athletes. We blended ‘in situ’ observations, interviews, and documents analysis to explore the case, and HEA-informed working models were transformed into empirical models summarizing the case. Findings show a well-coordinated DCDE with the key role of coaches in daily dual career support, and how efforts were integrated through a dual career-support team sharing a philosophy of facilitating healthy performance development and life balance, with a whole-person and empowerment approach. This study adds to the literature by identifying features of a successful DCDE and insights from the case can be useful for practitioners in their quest to optimize their DCDEs and support. © 2020 Human Kinetics
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| 10. |
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