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- Ekengren, Johan, 1979-
(författare)
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Careers of Swedish Professional Handball Players : From an Empirical Model to Career-Long Psychological Support Services
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This PhD Project with a specialization in sport psychology is inspired by the cultural praxis of athletes’ careers paradigm. This implies that the Project blends theory, research, and practice within the context of Swedish handball, by investigating career pathways of professional players providing empirically based, and context specific, implications. The overarching aim of the Project is twofold: (a) to examine the career experiences of Swedish professional handball players and consolidate them into the empirical career model of Swedish professional handball players (ECM-H), and (b) based on the ECM-H, to develop, validate, and test an applied framework promoting career-long psychological support services in Swedish handball (CPS-H). The first aim is covered by Study I and II, and the second aim is met in Study III and IV. The dissertation is designed as a collection of four articles with one article per study. Study I focused on a qualitative exploration of career experiences from 18 Swedish professional handball players including major career stages and transitions in their athletic and non-athletic development. The players’ accounts were consolidated into the ECM-H describing the context-specific features and pathways throughout the handball career. When developing the ECM-H, gender-specific issues appeared of interest for further investigation. Gender issues were addressed in Study II by re-analyzing the data from Study I. Two composite vignettes were created describing the career pathways of nine male and nine female players. Study III initiated a move from research to practice. Based on the ECM-H, applied sport psychology literature and experiences of the research team led by the first author, the applied framework CPS-H was heuristically developed and validated in three focus groups with end users; professional players, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners. The validated version of the CPS-H is presented with general and career stage-specific recommendations for its implementation among support providers (i.e., where, when, what, who, why, and how of psychological support service). Study IV was designed as an instrumental case study for testing a part of the CPS-H framework. More specifically, the mastery career stage. A career assistance program (CAP) named Life as a professional handball player was developed for, implemented with, and evaluated by Swedish League team. The program included eight workshops dealing with various aspects of the players’ athletic and non-athletic life (e.g., performance, training, lifestyle, recovery, future planning), together with crisis-related issues (e.g., coping with uncertainty). These workshops were delivered by the first author during 12 weeks of a competitive season. The mixed-methods evaluation revealed a perceived improvement in players’ personal coping resources (e.g., increased awareness) and a decrease in their fatigue and stress. This Project contributes to the athlete career sport psychology discourse and the emerging athlete mental health discourse by presenting the ECM-H and CPS-H frameworks, and the CAP Life as a professional handball player, grounded in the cultural context of Swedish handball. The frameworks and CAP can serve as inspiration for future research and practice, informed by a cultural praxis. The Project shows the usefulness of working as a scientist-practitioner and establishing theory-researchpractice-context links for the promotion of culturally informed implications, and supports the work of facilitating a holistic understanding of athletes’ striving for healthy, successful, and long-lasting careers in sport and life.
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| 2. |
- Ekengren, Johan, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Composite vignettes of Swedish male and female professional handball players’ career paths
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sport in Society. - Abingdon : Routledge. - 1743-0437 .- 1743-0445. ; 23:4, s. 595-612
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to describe gender-specific career paths of Swedish professional handball players. A reanalysis of Ekengren et al. (2018) career interviews with nine male and nine female players led to creating two composite vignettes using the athletes’ own words, accounted for typical features in the male and female players’ career paths. Seven themes were identified in the analysis of the men’s transcripts and eight themes derived from the women’s transcripts. Further, the themes of both vignettes were aligned with career stages described in our previous study (Ekengren et al. 2018). The male players’ vignette is interpreted as a performance narrative congruent with elite handball culture that promotes performance success and profitable professional contracts. The female players’ vignette is more holistic, embracing handball, studies, motherhood, and how they ought to be as Swedish women. Recommendations for future research are provided. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
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| 3. |
- Ekengren, Johan, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring career experiences of Swedish professional handball players : Consolidating firsthand information into an empirical career model
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. - New York : Taylor & Francis. - 1612-197X .- 1557-251X. ; 18:2, s. 156-175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study was aimed at developing the empirical career model of Swedish professional handball players by means of exploring their career experiences in athletic and non-athletic developments through the lens of the holistic athletic career model. Eighteen Swedish professional handball players (nine men and nine women), who had recently terminated or were finishing their careers took part in semi-structured interviews about their careers from the beginning to the end with an interest in both athletic and non-athletic developments. Thematic analysis initially focused on identifying the handball career structure (i.e. stages and sub-stages). Then, the interviews were analysed inductively to identify shared themes in the players’ experiences relevant to each career stage. These themes were incorporated in the relevant stages, and the empirical career model of Swedish professional handball players (further – the empirical model) was finalised. The empirical model describes careers of Swedish handball players as having four athletic stages – initiation, development (with three sub-stages), mastery (with four sub-stages), and discontinuation – complemented by players’ psychological, psychosocial, academic/vocational, and financial developments. Each stage is also aligned with age markers and contains themes describing players’ career experiences from the holistic perspective. The empirical model contributes to contextualised career research and serves as a basis for developing career-long psychological support services in Swedish handball including player/coach/parent education organised by the Swedish Handball Federation.© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
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| 4. |
- Johnson, Urban, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Transplant Recipients’ Experience of Participation at the World Transplant Games in Gothenburg 2011 : A Study of Psychological Well-being
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Open Transplantation Journal. - Bussum : Bentham Open. - 1874-4184. ; 7, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The World Transplant Games (WTG) is a biennial worldwide sporting event. Most published research relating to WTG has focused on medical issues. However, few studies have examined factors such as psychological wellbeing in sport for this group. The purpose of this study is to provide a description of the English-speaking participants at the WTG and analyze five research questions linked to how (1) health, (2), satisfaction with sports participation (3), perceived competence, (4) health as a benefit of sport participation (5), and impaired health as a cost of sports participation, are related to psychological factors in sports. There were a total of 253 participants with a mean age of 43.6 years, originating from seven English-speaking nations. Four validated psychological questionnaires were used, as well as a screening of background data of the group. The main characteristics of the English-speaking population were university educated middle age men with kidney transplants, who had participated in athletics at a rather high competitive level before the transplant. The main statistical findings particularly showed that satisfaction with sport participation, perceived health and health as a benefit were the dependent variables that explained most of the variance in the analysis. In conclusion, perceived competence, enjoyment and health seem to be critical psychological factors that essentially act as prime motivating factors behind participation in games such as WTG, and ultimately lead to a sense of psychological well-being among the participants. Finally, there is a discussion of future research, as well as the practical value of the results.
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| 5. |
- Ageberg, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Cocreating injury prevention training for youth team handball : bridging theory and practice
- 2022
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Ingår i: BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine. - London : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2055-7647. ; 8:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although it is advocated that end-users are engaged in developing evidence-based injury prevention training to enhance the implementation, this rarely happens. The € Implementing injury Prevention training ROutines in TEams and Clubs in youth Team handball (I-PROTECT)' uses an ecological participatory design incorporating the perspectives of multiple stakeholders throughout the project. Within the I-PROTECT project, the current study aimed to describe the development of holistic injury prevention training specifically for youth handball players through using knowledge from both end-users (coaches and players) and researchers/handball experts. Employing action evaluation within participatory action research, the cyclical development process included three phases: research team preparation, handball expert-based preparation and end-user evaluation to develop injury prevention training incorporating both physical and psychological perspectives. To grow the knowledge of the interdisciplinary research team, rethinking was conducted within and between phases based on participants' contributions. Researchers and end-users cocreated examples of handball-specific exercises, including injury prevention physical principles (movement technique for upper and lower extremities, respectively, and muscle strength) combined with psychological aspects (increase end-user motivation, task focus and body awareness) to integrate into warm-up and skills training within handball practice. A cyclical development process that engaged researchers/handball experts and end-users to cocreate evidence-based, theory-informed and context-specific injury prevention training specifically for youth handball players generated a first pilot version of exercises including physical principles combined with psychological aspects to be integrated within handball practice. © 2022 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. © 2022 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Back, Jenny, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Drop-out from team sport among adolescents : A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies
- 2022
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Ingår i: Psychology of Sport And Exercise. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 1469-0292 .- 1878-5476. ; 61
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the last decades, an increased drop-out rate in adolescents’ team sport participation is observed. Given the potential adverse consequences of drop-out from team sport more information about risk factors for drop-out is warranted. The objectives of this systematic review were to (1) synthesise the literature on factors associated with future drop-out from team sport among adolescents and (2) investigate the strength of associations between drop-out and related factors with meta-analysis. The databases Academic Search Elite, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed and SPORTDiscus were searched for relevant publications from the earliest reported date until October 8, 2021. Articles were included if: (1) data about drop-out was collected; (2) the focus was on adolescents; (3) the context was team sport and (4) studies were of prospective design. We used the Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for Non-randomized Studies (RoBANS) to assess the risk of bias in included studies. A narrative synthesis was conducted according to the reporting guideline of synthesis without meta-analysis. Studies that presented statistical data necessary for the calculation of Hedge’s g effect sizes were included in the meta-analysis. In total, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the narrative synthesis. The meta-analysis included 12 of the studies. Altogether, 6304 adolescent team sport players participated in the selected studies. Of those studies, most had a focus on intrapersonal factors relationship with drop-out. The results showed that constructs related to motivation as well as sport experience had the strongest relationships with drop-out. To prevent drop-out from adolescents’ team sport, organisations and clubs are recommended to focus on developing a high-quality motivation climate that facilitates motivation and enjoyment. © 2022 The Authors
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| 8. |
- Back, Jenny, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Psychosocial Predictors of Drop-Out from Organised Sport : A Prospective Study in Adolescent Soccer
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - Basel : MDPI. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 19:24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years an increased drop-out rate in adolescents' soccer participation has been observed. Given the potentially adverse consequences of drop-out from soccer, more information about risk factors for drop-out is warranted. In the current study, Classification and Regression Tree (CRT) analysis was used to investigate demographic and motivational factors associated with an increased risk of drop-out from adolescent soccer. The results of this study indicate that older age, experiencing less autonomy support from the coach, less intrinsic motivation, being female, and lower socioeconomic status are factors associated with an increased risk of drop-out. An interpretation of the results of this study is that coaches play a central part in creating a sports context that facilitates motivation and continued soccer participation. Based on the findings of the current study we propose that soccer clubs implement theoretically informed coach education programs to help coaches adopt autonomy-supportive coaching strategies.
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| 9. |
- Bengtsson, Sverker, et al.
(författare)
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Time, Money and Support : Student-Athletes Transition to High Achivement Sport
- 2012
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Ingår i: Athletic Insight Journal. - New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.. - 1947-6299 .- 2374-0531. ; 4:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of within-career transition, as experienced by student-athletes striving to reach the international level. Interviews were used to examine the perceptions of 26 Swedish student-athletes with a mean age of 22.5 years practicing individual sportsatthe national elite level, involved in a career assistance program. Categories identified through thematiccontent analysis were changes experienced in the transition, the career assistance program, resources to adjust to the new level in sport, satisfaction with their current situation, and strategies to adjust to the new level in sport. The athletes highlighted the value of interpersonal support and commitment, and recognized the need to develop further coping strategies, such as stress and time management. Practical implications for promoting successful within-career transitions are discussed © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 10. |
- Bengtsson, Sverker, et al.
(författare)
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Time, money and support : Student-athletes' transition to high achievement sports
- 2013
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Ingår i: Athletic Insight's Writings of 2012. - New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.. - 9781626181205 ; , s. 99-116
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- All rights reserved.The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of within-career transition, as experienced by student-athletes striving to reach the international level. Interviews were used to examine the perceptions of 26 Swedish student-athletes with a mean age of 22.5 years practicing individual sportsa the national elite level, involved in a career assistance program. Categories identified through them at iccontent analysis were changes experienced in the transition, the career assistance program, resources to adjust to the new level in sport, satisfaction with their current situation, and strategies to adjust to the new level in sport. The athletes highlighted the value of interpersonal support and commitment, and recognized the need to develop further coping strategies, such as stress and time management. Practical implications for promoting successful within-career transitions are discussed. © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
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