Background: Previous research suggests that sleep problems may be an important predictor for chronic widespread pain (CWP). With this study we investigated both sleep problems and fatigue as predictors for the onset of CWP over a 5-year and an 18-year perspective in a population free from CWP at baseline.

Methods: To get a more stable classification of CWP, we used a wash-out period, including only individuals who had not reported CWP at baseline (1998) and three years prior baseline (1995). In all, data from 1249 individuals entered the analyses for the 5-year follow-up and 791 entered for the 18-year follow-up. Difficulties initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, early morning awakening, non-restorative sleep and fatigue were investigated as predictors separately and simultaneously in binary logistic regression analyses.

Results: The results showed that problems with initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, early awakening and non-restorative sleep predicted the onset of CWP over a 5-year (OR 1.85 to OR 2.27) and 18-year (OR 1.54 to OR 2.25) perspective irrespective of mental health (assessed by SF-36) at baseline. Also fatigue predicted the onset of CWP over the two-time perspectives (OR 3.70 and OR 2.36 respectively) when adjusting for mental health. Overall the effect of the sleep problems and fatigue on new onset CWP (over a 5-year perspective) was somewhat attenuated when adjusting for pain at baseline but remained significant for problems with early awakening, non-restorative sleep and fatigue. Problems with maintaining sleep predicted CWP 18 years later irrespective of mental health and number of pain regions (OR 1.72). Reporting simultaneous problems with all four aspects of sleep was associated with the onset of CWP over a five-year and 18-yearperspective, irrespective of age, gender, socio economy, mental health and pain at baseline. Sleep problems and fatigue predicted the onset of CWP five years later irrespective of each other.

Conclusion: Sleep problems and fatigue were both important predictors for the onset of CWP over a five-year perspective. Sleep problems was a stronger predictor in a longer time-perspective. The results highlight the importance of the assessment of sleep quality and fatigue in the clinic. © The Author(s). 2018

BACKGROUND: The improvement in treatment of pediatric acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL) has introduced new challenges for pediatric oncology care in understanding and handling long-term treatment-related complications later in adult life. The aim of this study was to describe health related quality of life (HRQoL) and the relation to buffering factors among young adult (YA) pediatric ALL survivors and their siblings.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed among 227 adults, treated for pediatric ALL in Sweden between 1985 and 1997 and their siblings (n = 70). Group means of HRQoL (SF-36) were compared between YA ALL survivors and the siblings, as well as to normative values from the general population. Self-efficacy (GSES) and social support (SS-13 subscale AVSI) was considering potential buffering factors for HRQoL and mental health. Associations between HRQoL and mental health respectively and self-efficacy and social support was analyzed.

RESULTS: The YA ALL survivors scored significantly lower on the HRQoL parameters general health (69.6 vs. 78.4, p = 0.004) and role emotional (77.1 vs. 88.1, p = 0.014), than the siblings. Further, they reported significantly lower general health (69.6 vs. 75.8), vitality (56.9 vs. 68.8), social functioning (84.5 vs. 88.6), role emotional (77.1 vs. 85.7) and mental health (71.3 vs. 80.9) compared with Swedish norms. Both YA ALL survivors and the siblings reported lower vitality and worse mental health than the general population. The HRQoL parameters, depression, stress and anxiety were all associated with both self-efficacy and social support among the YA ALL survivors. Among the siblings however, only general health, vitality, role emotional, mental health and depression were associated with social support, and only general health and mental health were associated with general self-efficacy.

CONCLUSION: The results from this study show that buffering factors, like social support and self-efficacy, may play an important role for psychosocial outcomes and HRQoL among YA ALL survivors later in life. The results suggest that this group could benefit from continuous support in adult life to handle consequences of their pediatric disease. © 2021, The Author(s).

ABSTRACT: Our knowledge of the prevalence, impact, and outcomes of chronic pain in the general population is predominantly based on studies over relatively short periods of time. The aim of this study was to identify and describe trajectories of the chronic pain status over a period of 21 years. Self-reported population data (n = 1858) from 5 timepoints were analyzed. Pain was categorized by: no chronic pain (NCP), chronic regional pain (CRP), and chronic widespread pain (CWP). Latent class growth analysis was performed for identification of trajectories and logistic regression analysis for identification of predictors for pain prognosis. Five trajectories were identified: (1) persistent NCP (57%), (2) migrating from NCP to CRP or CWP (5%), (3) persistent CRP or migration between CRP and NCP (22%), (4) migration from CRP to CWP (10%), and (5) persistent CWP (6%). Age, sleeping problems, poor vitality, and physical function at baseline were associated with pain progression from NCP. Female gender, seeking care for pain, lack of social support, poor physical function, vitality, and mental health predicted poor pain prognosis among those with CRP. In conclusion, chronic pain was common in the population including 6% reporting persistent CWP, although the majority persistently reported NCP. Most people had stable pain status, but some had ongoing change in pain status over time including people who improved from chronic pain. It was possible to identify clinically relevant factors, characterizing trajectories of chronic pain development, that can be useful for identifying individuals at risk and potential targets for intervention. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Pain.

In applied sport, exercise, and performance psychology (SEPP), discussions of meta-supervision (i.e., the supervision of supervision, the training of practitioners to become competent supervisors) are at least 20 years old and go back to the first published account of a meta-supervision program (Barney, Andersen, & Riggs, 1996). Even though 20 years have passed since, the topic of meta-supervision is still relatively rare in the literature, often being a small part of some other research or discussion article. For example, Watson, Zizzi, Etzel, and Lubker (2004) mentioned a meta-supervision issue when they reported that 47 percent of the membership of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) had not received any training in supervision. Recently, however, the topic of meta-supervision has begun to emerge, albeit in a small way. There have been calls for more training in supervision processes, along with suggestions for new supervision training models (e.g., Vosloo, Zakrajsek, & Grindley, 2014). Currently, there is a growing literature on peer supervision in our field, but a review of that topic is beyond the scope of this case study (see Chapters 34 and 35 in this volume for examples). Barney and Andersen (2014a) have explicitly addressed the current status and the future of SEPP meta-supervision. These same authors have incorporated mindfulness into a core feature of meta-supervision: the dynamics within the supervisor-supervisee relationship (Barney & Andersen, 2014b). © 2016 Taylor & Francis.

Penalty-taking performance in handball within a self-regulatory focus framework was examined. In a two-independent group design, regulatory framings (either promotion or prevention) were given to participants (N = 25) prior to penalty-taking. More precisely, Swedish male (n = 15) and female (n = 10) players of the third male and second female Swedish Leagues were randomly allocated to shoot three penalties each under either a promotion-framed (n = 13; Mage = 20.77, SD = 3.77 years) or a prevention-framed (n = 12; Mage = 19.25, SD = 2.09 years) condition. Positive and negative affect were measured to assess pre-performance emotional states. Findings showed that promotion–focused individuals performed better in a promotion– framed penalty (i.e. fit) than in a prevention–framed (i.e. mismatch). Moreover, when in regulatory fit, pre-performance positive emotions were reported to be greater than when in mismatch. Findings are discussed in terms of role of fit and emotional states in pressureperformance critical situations.

Background: There is some evidence supporting associations between metabolic factors, clinical hand osteoarthritis (OA) and radiographic knee OA. However, more studies are needed regarding early knee OA.

Objectives: The aim was to study associations between metabolic factors and clinical hand OA at baseline in a cohort of individuals with knee pain, with and without radiographic knee OA.

Methods: In an ongoing five-year longitudinal study of knee pain, hand OA was assessed by clinical examinations in 296 of the included individuals at baseline [1]. BMI, waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure was measured. Body composition was assessed with Inbody 770. Fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL-and LDL-cholesterol and HbA1c was analysed. Metabolic syndrome (MetS)was present if central obesity (WC ≥94 cm in men and ≥80cm in women) plus any two of the following factors: raised blood pressure (systolic blood pressure ≥ 130 or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 85 mm Hg or treatment of hypertension), raised triglycerides (≥ 1.7 mmol/L or specific treatment), reduced HDL-cholesterol (men < 1.03 mmol/L and women < 1.29 mmol/L or specific treatment), raised glucose (glucose ≥ 5.6 mmol/L, or type 2 diabetes). Hand strength and self-reported disability of the arm, shoulder and hand (quickDASH) was assessed.

The individuals were divided according to having clinical hand OA or not, according to Altman [1]. The associations between background factors and clinical hand OA were calculated by crude logistic regression analyses, adjusting for age and sex.

Results: Fifty-five percent of the individuals in the study was overweight or obese, 40% had MetS and 23% had radiographic knee OA. In total 34% of the individuals had clinical hand OA. The group with hand OA were older, had higher proportion of body fat, fasting plasma glucose, HbA1C, worse quickDASH score and lower hand strength, table 1. Clinical hand OA was significantly associated to higher age (OR 1.04, 95%CI 1.01-1.07), higher fasting plasma glucose (1.56, 1.05-2.30), worse quickDASH (1.04, 1.02-1.06) and lower hand strength (0.99, 0.99 -0.998), but not to proportion of body fat and HbA1c.

Conclusion: In this cross-sectional study, the only metabolic factor associated with clinical hand OA was fasting plasma glucose. Contrary to other studies, there were no gender differences found. The association between development of clinical hand OA and metabolic factors in individuals with knee pain need to be further assessed in longitudinal studies.

Exercise dependence is a maladaptive pattern of exercise with a craving for physical activity that results in extreme exercise that may generate mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Previous research suggests that individuals with certain personality traits are more prone to develop exercise dependence. However, research on personality traits and exercise dependence is still limited. In the current study, predictive abilities of anxiety, obsessive passion and appearance orientation on exercise dependence were investigated. A longitudinal design was adopted to investigate if personality related factors could predict exercise dependence. The sample consisted of 206 regular exercisers (100 males and 106 females) from various exercise groups, sport clubs and sport science classes in Sweden (Mage = 28,5 years; SD = 9,97). The LPA (Latent Profile Analysis) showed that a model with two profiles provided best fit to the data, and that profile belonging at T1 could predict measures of exercise dependence at T2. Profile 1: “high risk exercisers” reported significantly higher levels of exercise dependence, anxiety, obsessive passion and appearance orientation compared to Profile 2: “low risk exercisers”. This study highlights factors that may characterize people who develop exercise dependence. High-risk exercisers are obsessively passionate about their training and exercise may function as a tool to cope with anxiety. If the individual for some reason is prevented from training, feelings of anxiety and guilt are often experienced. Furthermore, these individuals tend to be self-conscious about how they look and appear to other people. To them, exercise may also work as a way to achieve body ideals. The results of the current study suggest plausible mechanisms of why exercise behaviours become unhealthy and uncontrollable for some exercisers whereas others manage to remain healthy.

The main aim of this study was to investigate if exercisers’ personality characteristics were associated with exercise dependence. Specifically, the purpose was to examine if anxiety, obsessive passion, and physical appearance orientation were associated to an increased risk for exercise dependence. Participants were 330 exercisers from exercise groups, sport clubs and university sport science classes in the southwest of Sweden. Data were analysed using CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) analysis. The CHAID analysis indicated that anxiety was the main predictor of exercise dependence. More specifically, 12.7% more exercisers who experienced high levels of anxiety symptoms (i.e. scores above 6), were, in comparison to the exercises experiencing low levels of anxiety, classified as “at risk for exercise dependence”. For exercisers that reported low levels of anxiety symptoms (i.e. scores below 7), obsessive passion for exercise was a positive statistically significant predictor (absolute risk difference = 8.6%). Overall, the results highlight anxiety as a main risk factor behind exercise dependence. Also, the risk of exercise dependence may increase either from obsessive passion or as a coping strategy for anxiety. Furthermore, results may illustrate two types of exercise dependence; “primary” exercise dependence driven mainly by an obsessive passion for exercise and “secondary” exercise dependence where exercise function as a strategy to cope with anxiety. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Canadian ice-hockey players must overcome numerous stressors throughout their National Hockey  League (NHL) careers. Though sport psychology researchers have conducted preliminary studies, theoretical restrictions, small participant numbers, and the use of a structured interview guide have limited breadth of knowledge. Our authors constructed a comprehensive empirical career model by eliciting 23 Canadian NHL players. The intent in the presentation is to feature the stressors, barriers, coping strategies and resources utilised at each status and career stage. Five rookies, five veterans, and 13 retirees agreed to participate in conversational interviews before their transcripts underwent an interpretive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012). Prospects seeking to gain entry into the NHL needed (a) realistic expectations of draft pressures, (b) training camp expectations, (c) identify the team’s needs, and (d) if demoted, readjust their expectations. Rookies developing  as NHL p layers needed a high compete level when called-up while sophomores developed by (a) knowing their opponents, (b) generating role player production, and (c) made friendships. Veterans seeking to be All-Stars coped by (a) practicing scoring and creating scoring chances, and (b) showing Stanley Cup determination. Seasoned veterans extended their careers by preserving their physique. The authors will discuss the practical applications for sport psychology consultants tasked with ensuring that professional ice-hockey players move effectively through career transitions including entering the NHL, developing as an NHL players, reaching the NHL elite, and maintaining NHL play involvement. The authors will also speak about teammates, coaches, and support staff hoping to be effective resources to their players’ career progression. © 2017 by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology 

Acknowledging the importance of longitudinal data to test process-based psychological theories of motivation is critical. The purpose of this study was to use a person-centred approach to identify unique subgroups (i.e. profiles) of youth athletes based on their level of self-reported programme quality (PQ) and basic needs support mid-way through their sport season and investigate potential differences between the subgroups on their self-reported basic needs satisfaction at the end of the sport season. The current study involved 541 Canadian youth athletes (males n = 289; females n = 250; gender-fluid n = 2) within 52 sport programmes over the course of 18 months. Youthathletes ranged in age from 8 through 19 (M = 13.76, SD = 2.61). A latent profile analysis (LPA) in Mplus 8.0 was used to carry out the analyses. The LPA revealed three distinct profiles based on youth athletes’ levels of self-reported PQ and basic needs support. Specifically, athletes who perceived their sport experience to be of higher quality and supported their basic psychological needs midway through the sport season also reported higher levels of basic needs satisfaction at season end. Results from this study contribute to the field of sport psychology through understanding how basic needs theory contributes to the dimensions of programme quality and by informing recommendations for future coach education on how to satisfy youth athletes’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness through programmedelivery. © 2018 International Society of Sport Psychology

Elite athletes push themselves physically and psychologically to their limits in order to develop as athletes and to deliver top performances. To succeed, the athletes must manage their energy. This is particularly important in the periods of high demand on the athletes’ resources (Kellmann, Altenburg, Lormes, & Steinacker, 2001). These include training camps and competitions, because such events are generally intense and likely to induce increased stress, and their schedules often do not allow sufficient time for recovery (Elbe & Kellmann, 2007; Foster, Snyder, & Welsh, 1999). In 2015, the Danish national orienteering coach decided, as a new initiative, to include a three-week training camp in their preparation for the World Championship. The coach was aware that such a long period of intense focus on orienteering would require efficient energy management in the athletes. Therefore, the coach supported the research team in this study aimed at monitoring the athletes’ stress-recovery states during the preparatory camp and the World Championship, with further exploration of the athletes’ perceived sources of stress and recovery during the same period. From a research perspective, the present study is exclusive because of monitoring world-class athlete-participants during their preparation and participation in their most important event. From an applied perspective, searching for efficient processes for energy management during long-term training camps and competitions might become a frontier for improvement of athletes’ preparation and performance.

Elite level athletes are under considerable pressure to perform, why energy management is a natural part of the life of elite athletes. Energy management is particularly important during periods of high demand on their resources, such as during training camps and competitions, which are often intense and do not allow sufficient time for recovery. Research on recovery has mainly focused on individual physical and physiological strategies. In the 2015 World Championship, the Danish national orienteering team was the best nation, winning four gold medals. In the present study we examined: (a) the stress-recovery states of the Danish orienteers during a three-week preparatory training camp and the following 2015 World Championship, and (b) their perceived sources of stress and recovery during the two events. The study was designed as mixed-method with the RESTQ-sport questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and a coach’s journal as the data sources used longitudinally during the camp and the championship. Results revealed: (a) well-balanced stress-recovery states among all athletes during the entire period; and (b) perceived sources of stress and recovery classified into organizational, social, personal, and athletic. The athletes themselves stated that their well-balanced stress-recovery states positively affected their learning, well-being, and performance. The organizational strategies played a key role in reducing athletes’ unnecessary stress and in facilitating individual recovery. We suggest that “organizing for excellence”, keeping in mind athletes' energy management, is a special task for coaches and managers when preparing for camps and competitions. 

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. 

Objectives: Studies including people with severe mental illness (SMI) have reported beneficial effects from physical activity (PA) on psychiatric symptoms, quality of life, and global functioning. However, it is important to be regularly physically active to obtain these effects. Using the motivational lens of self-determination theory, the aim of the current study was to explore the dynamic interplay between satisfaction of psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) in PA and the patients' weekly PA level.

Methods: The study had a longitudinal design, following 10 inpatients with du& diagnoses (SMI and addiction) over 12 weeks at a psychiatric ward offering physical activity as part of treatment Data were collected 14 times with a questionnaire measuring psychological need satisfaction, while an accelerometer was used to objectively count steps to reflect participants average PA-level each week. To analyse the week-to-week relationships between the basic psychological needs and PA-level, the Bayesian dynamic p-technique analysis was used to explore both cross-sectional-, autoregressive- as well as cross-lagged effects between the constructs.

Results: The results indicated credible and strong positive autoregressive effects for all three psychological needs as well as for PA-level, and positive credible cross-sectional associations between all three psychological needs and PA-level. However, the cross-lagged effects were small and not credible for all three psychological needs in relation to PA-level.

Conclusions: In total, these results support the established positive relation between basic psychological need satisfaction and PA-level yet failed in finding any predictive effects between need satisfaction and PA-level. © 2021 The Author(s).

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore health from the perspective of young immigrants in Sweden.

Design/methodology/approach: A total of 25 newly arrived young immigrants attending Swedish language classes in northern Sweden participated by drawing and writing open letters. They continued the open-ended sentence “Now I’ll draw and describe a day when I was feeling good, that was […].”

Findings: The phenomenological analysis resulted in three themes: longing to be in control for a better life, searching for power in the good and the bad, and striving for a sense of belonging in the new society. The findings illuminate young immigrants’ perspectives of a health-promoting everyday life consisting of agency, reflection and a sense of community. The findings also highlight the young immigrants’ experiences when health-promoting aspects are lacking, characterized by disillusionment, anxiety and loneliness. The findings are discussed with health promotion, health literacy and young immigrants in mind.

Practical implications: According to young immigrants, meeting basic needs such as food, sleep and housing is health promoting but easily taken for granted. Being able to have a say in matters concerning everyday life, social inclusion and finding power in memories – positive and negative – can promote health in young immigrants.

Originality/value: The young immigrants were able to communicate via drawings and words to overcome language barriers. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Organizational climate and related factors are associated with outcome and are as such of vital interest for healthcare organizations. Organizational Readiness for Change (ORC) is the questionnaire used in the present study to assess the influence of organizational factors on implementation success. The respondents were employed in one of 203 Swedish municipalities within social work and psychiatric substance/abuse treatment services. They took part in a nationwide implementation project organized by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), commissioned by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. Aim The aims were: (a) to identify classes (clusters) of employees with different ORC profiles on the basis of data collected in 2011 and (b) to investigate ORC profiles which predicted the use of assessment instruments, therapy methods and collaborative activities in 2011 and 2013. Design and recruitment The evaluation study applied a naturalistic design with registration of outcome at consecutive assessments. The participants were contacted via official e-mail addresses in their respective healthcare units and were encouraged by their officials to participate on a voluntary basis. Statistics Descriptive statistics were obtained using SPSS version 23. A latent profile analysis (LPA) using Mplus 7.3 was performed with a robust maximum likelihood estimator (MLR) to identify subgroups (clusters) based on the 18 ORC indexes. Results A total of 2402 employees responded to the survey, of whom 1794 (74.7%) completed the ORC scores. Descriptive analysis indicated that the respondents were a homogenous group of employees, where women (72.0%) formed the majority. Cronbach's alpha for the 18 ORC indexes ranged from α = 0.67 to α = 0.78. A principal component analysis yielded a four-factor solution explaining 62% of the variance in total ORC scores. The factors were: motivational readiness (α = 0.64), institutional resources (α = 0.52), staff attributes (α = 0.76), and organizational climate (α = 0.74). An LPA analysis of the four factors with their three distinct profiles provided the best data fit: Profile 3 (n = 614), Profile 2 (n = 934), and Profile 1 (n = 246). Respondents with the most favorable ORC scores (Profile 3) used significantly more instruments and more treatment methods and had a better collaborating network in 2011 as well as in 2013 compared to members in Profile 1, the least successful profile. Conclusion In a large sample of social work and healthcare professionals, ORC scores reflecting higher institutional resources, staff attributes and organizational climate and lower motivational readiness for change were associated with a successful implementation of good practice guidelines for the care and treatment of substance users in Sweden. Low motivational readiness as a construct may indicate satisfaction with the present situation. As ORC proved to be an indicator of successful dissemination of evidence-based guidelines into routine and specialist healthcare, it can be used to tailor interventions to individual employees or services and to improve the dissemination of and compliance with guidelines for the treatment of substance users. © 2017

Life expectancy is greatly reduced in patients with schizophrenia, and cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of mortality. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and to investigate the relationships between self-rated health, sense of coherence, CVD risk, and body mass index (BMI) among people with severe mental illness (SMI) in psychiatric outpatient settings. Nearly 50% of the participants were exposed to moderate/high risk of CVD and over 50% were obese. The results showed no statistically relationships between the subjective and objective measures (Bayes factor <1) of health. The integration of physical health into clinical psychiatric nursing practice is vital. © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

The objective of this study was to explore the career narratives of professional athletes from underserved communities in the United States. Two African American athletes (named Marcus and Imari for the study), who both met the criteria of playing at least one year in a professional league and spending their formative years in an underserved community, participated in this study. Life story interviews lasting about two hours were explored through the principles of narrative analysis, focusing on both content and structure. Each participant constructed a sink or swim narrative typology termed risk, descent, and gain that focused more on the environmental context in an underserved community than their athletic development, which opposes the performance narrative often depicted by professional athletes. Although the contextualised nature of risk manifested differently for Marcus and Imari, their life courses both reflected low points precipitated by risky decisions or circumstances followed by gainful moments ultimately culminating in professional contracts. The analysis also uncovered the realities and challenges associated with having the intersecting identity of being a poor, Black aspiring athlete in a racially charged atmosphere. Finally, the athletes’ perceptions of how their challenging formative development influenced their professional career pathway as well as the ramifications of sink or swim narratives in popular American culture are considered. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The research on the career pathways of professional athletes is well established in sport psychology, yet this field is lacking insight into the lives of athletes whose formative years were spent primarily in an American underserved community (Stambulova & Wyllemann, 2014). Using the Holistic Ecological Approach as a framework, this PhD project’s aim is to begin to understand how professional athletes were able to circumvent the environmental hardships and still reach the professional level of their chosen sport (Henriksen, 2010; Henriksen & Stambulova, 2017). This study involved in-depth, biographical interviews with N = 10 professional athletes who overcame significant adversity. Through the analysis of the data, many commonalities emerged. Key transitional and existential relationships, an understanding that sport was a way out of hardship and an ability to shift and persist through adversity, were key themes identified in the data. However, considering multi- and equifinality, no two lives are exactly the same and life stories can converge and diverge at many different junctions. Thus, this presentation will contain a brief summary of two athletes who overcame many of the same obstacles, reached a similar level in their sport, yet it is clear that their environment shaped them in drastically different ways.

Introduction: This presentation will focus on the content of PhD project of the first author who has had extensive experiences of working in American schools within underserved (i.e., poor) communities. In spite of lacking resources, some of these schools are able to contribute into developing high performance athletes in various sports (including racket sports) and empowering them to achieve the success against the odds. These real life examples served as an inspiration to investigate such athletes’ career pathways and environments in which they had grown up.

Aim and theoretical framework: The aim of this project is to acquire knowledge regarding the challenges and barriers faced by athletic talent development environments in underserved communities (UATDEs) and how successful UATDEs manage to help athletes achieve athletic and personal success against the odds. The study is based on the holistic ecological approach (Henriksen, 2010; Henriksen & Stambulova, 2017), and particularly on the athletic talent development environment (ATDE) model. The model was previously applied to study ATDEs in Scandinavia with its high social and economic equality. Conversely, in the United States, with its large income gap, many underserved communities struggle to produce elite athletes, and little investigation has been conducted surrounding such environments.

Project design and method: The project will consist of three studies. Study 1will focus on exploring career pathways to athletic success and related environmental and personal factors in American athletes with low SES background through a series of interviews. Another series of interviews will be used in Study 2 to examine key stakeholders' perspectives on challenges faced and strategies implemented in UATDEs. In Study 3, the case study approach will be used to investigate two successful UATDEs within American communities and identify shared features responsible for their talent development success.

Expected results: It is expected that Study 1 will reveal that athletes at the UATDEs were forced to deal with hardship and overcome a number of challenges that made them more resilient compared to those from affluent circumstances. From Study 2 it is expected to identify a spectrum of complicated issues (e.g., lack of funding, less access to practice time, lower moral, high stress and low levels of communication and support) that the UATDEs deal with. The anticipated results from Study 3 are that successful UATDEs have unique but also shared features that may form the basis for developing UATDE frameworks as an expansion of the holistic ecological approach.

Objective: To explore how the intersectional perspective of being a Black male from an underserved community shaped the professional cultural transition of American basketball players to Europe. Design: and Method: The seven Black male athletes, who met the criteria of playing at least one year in a professional European basketball league and spending their formative years in an underserved community in the USA, participated in this study. Life story interviews, lasting between one and 2 h, were analysed through the principles of narrative analysis. Creative non-fiction was used to represent the findings in the form of composite vignettes using the words of the participants to create an evocative and meaningful experiential reconstruction. Findings: The analysis uncovered three primary themes; steppingstones to becoming a professional basketball migrant; from America to Europe: a whole new world once again; and “don't bother to unpack your bags:” from ups and downs to settlement plans. Within these themes, the intersectional identity of being a Black male from a poor community underpinned the storyline. Conclusions: All seven participants left their underserved community at some point during their teenage years, and this transition into a more affluent, White dominated society proved beneficial for the move to Europe. Further, the shared intersectional identity of being an African American male from a low socioeconomic community had critical implications for how they experienced the cultural transition to Europe, and how they were received by the host environment. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Background: Predictive psychological variables to sport injury have been extensivelyexplored during the last three decades. More recently, sociocultural variables have beenemphasized having a significantly impact in the injury process.

Objectives: The objective was (1) systemic review studies investigating psychological, social,and cultural risk factors to acute sports injury, (2) contribute with future methodologicaldevelopment within the field of sport injury prediction.

Design: Systematic literature review.

Methods: The electronic databases PsychINFO, PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science andSPORTDiscus as well as two earlier injury predictive reviews were searched. The inclusioncriteria were (a) prospective designs that continuously monitored injury during the studyperiod, (b) defined injury as acute/traumatic, (c) investigated the relationship or predictiveeffect between psychological and/or sociocultural risk factors and acute injury in sport.Results: In total, the literature review resulted in 65 studies. Most of the studies had aparticular focus on psychological variables, where only a minority investigated socioculturalrisk factors. The studies used mostly one single measurements wave´s for the risk factors,with regression analyses to analyze the result. The result showed that psychological as well associocultural variables can influence the risk of becoming injured.

Conclusion: Progress has been made in the field of predictive research on injury. In order tocontinue with an innovative development, four specific needs for future research is proposed:(1) the application of sophisticated analyses investigating how patterns of risk factors, andtheir interrelationship, is related with injury, (2) more regularly use of repeated-measuredesigns (preferable three occasions) combined with person-oriented analyses, (3) expand theknowledge regarding intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural factors as a “third variable”,(4) focus on the sociocultural and behavioral influences in acute injury.The necessity of an integrated and holistic standpoint is warranted for future research, whereresearch based on the inclusion of various theoretical models which seek to explain the injuryprocess will expand the understanding of the complex, interactive, and dynamic conditions.

Research has shown that high levels of stress and stress responsivity can increase the risk of injuries. However, most of the research that has supported this notion has focused on between-person relationships, ignoring the relationships at the within-person level. As a result, the objective of this study was to investigate if within-person changes in perceived stress symptoms over a 1-month time period could predict injury rates during the subsequent 3 months. A prospective design with two measurement points (Time 1—at the beginning of the season and Time 2—1 month into the season) was utilized. A total of 121 competitive soccer players (85 males and 36 females; M_age = 18.39, SD = 3.08) from Sweden and the United States completed the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (KPDS) and a demographic sheet at Time 1. The KPDS was also completed at Time 2, and all acute injuries that occurred during the subsequent 3-month period were recorded. A Bayesian latent change scores model was used to determine whether within-person changes in stress symptoms could predict the risk of injury. Results revealed that there was a credible positive effect of changes in stress symptoms on injury rates, indicating that an increase in reported stress symptoms was related to an increased risk for injury. This finding highlights the importance of creating caring and supportive sporting environments and relationships and teaching stress management techniques, especially during the earlier portion of competitive seasons, to possibly reduce the occurrence of injuries. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

PsyTool is a European project, funded by Erasmus+ Sport Programme, led by the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla, Spain). It brings together 13 partners from Spain, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom and Sweden, running from January 2016 to December 2017. PsyTool is based theoretically on the concept of youth development through the practice of sport in positive and safe environments. The central idea is that this type of practice leads to a psychological wellbeing in all areas of personal development of athletes. Through sport programs that are free of bullying; zero permissiveness towards substance use; low acceptance of gamemanship and cheating, and at the same time promoters of fair play and clean competition, young athletes are more likely to increase their psychological well-being while they practice the sport to their best level of capacity. One of the most important assets of PsyTool is the formation of Agents of Change as inductors of this well-being promoter environment, according to their different responsibilities, from the politics to grassroot coaching. The AoCs’ selection, training and certification is one of the key points of this program. This so-called “targeted snowball” approach is expected to produce a spreading impact on the young athletes, which can be evaluated in the short and medium term, depending of the nature of the different AoCs. Coming form this design and theoretical background, this program –once the results have been analyzed- has to lead to a more ambitious development both in its scope and on the educational methods involved with.

Introduction

The 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.

Methods

Within 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.

Results

Five 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).

Conclusion

Findings 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.

References

Wylleman P, Lavallee D. (2004). A Developmental Perspective on Transitions Faced by Athletes. In M Weis (Ed.), Developmental sport psychology. Morgantown, WV: Fitness International Technology.

This study was focused on the process of an adaptive transition to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO (further – the OTC) and guided by the research question: What were the dynamic transition experiences of elite resident-athletes that constituted their successful transition to the OTC? A retreatment of Poczwardowski, Diehl, O’Neil, Cote, & Haberl’s (2014) semi-structured interviews with six accomplished resident-athletes was conducted through the lens of the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003) to propose a temporally based Transition to the OTC (further – the TOTC) empirical framework. The TOTC describes the successful transition as having four phases – preparation, assimilation, adaptation, and thriving – involving the dynamic interactions between the resident-athletes and the OTC programs/staff influencing the perceived transition challenges, barriers, resources, coping strategies, and outcomes throughout the four phases. Based on the TOTC, future research on the transitioning to residential training centers is outlined, and practical applications for the OTC staff, coaches, and sport psychologists (e.g., developmentally relevant intake protocols, strengths-based interventions, and orientation materials) are proposed. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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.

This doctoral project was inspired by a set of challenges articulated in the cultural praxis of athletes’ careers paradigm (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013), and especially in regard of contextualizing career research and existing ‘general’ frameworks. Innovative aspects of this study consisted of: (a) exploring career experiences of Swedish handball players with foci on stages and transitions in their athletic and non-athletic development, and (b) consolidating the players’ first-hand data into an empirical career model of Swedish handball players (further – the empirical model). The holistic athletic career model (Wylleman, Reints & De Knop, 2013) served as a prototype for the empirical model and was useful in structuring the players’ career experiences. Eighteen elite Swedish handball players (retiring or just recently retired) took part in narrative type interviews about their whole careers with an interest in both athletic and non-athletic developments. Thematic analysis initially took a deductive turn to identify the handball career structure, and then the empirical data relevant to each stage/sub-stage were analysed inductively to identify themes describing players’ career experiences at each stage. Finally, the themes were incorporated into the stage-like structure, and the empirical model was completed. The model describes careers of Swedish handball players as having four stages – initiation, development (with three sub-stages), mastery (with four sub-stages), and discontinuation. It also contains eight layers – athletic categorisation in terms of age, pathways of the Swedish Handball Federation, academic/vocational, psychological, psychosocial, and financial developments – all aligned with age markers and complemented by sets of themes describing players’ stage-by-stage career experiences from the holistic perspective. Further in the project the empirical model will be used to create the ‘whole career’ psychological support system for Swedish handball players.

Introduction: Athletes have to pay a price to make their dream true, and for many this dream is to become professional and play in the national team (NT). Playing in the NT is often seen as the pinnacle of an athletic career but also as a period when athletes experience new demands due to their dual responsibility of playing in the club and in the NT. This dual responsibility brings additional performance demands, increased workload, extended travelling, many days away from home, etc., and in a combination with too little recovery, and various role conflicts leads to a stressful living. The transition to the NT can be classified as a quasi-normative (Stambulova, 2016) that is relevant only to elite level athletes. Challenging nature of this transition in a combination with its personal and social significance might put players at risk of poor coping and mental health problems (Frank, Nixdorf, & Beckmann, 2015; Stambulova & Wylleman, 2014; Stambulova 2017).

 Aim and theoretical framework: The transition to the NT was identified as a topic specific for the mastery stage of the players’ careers in the empirical career model of Swedish handball players (Ekengren, Stambulova, Johnson, & Carlsson, submitted). This model complemented by the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003; 2009) served as theoretical frameworks for this study. The aim of this study was to examine Swedish elite handball players’ experiences of participating in both a professional club and the NT with a specific focus on their perceived demands.

 Method: In the narrative-type interviews 18 Swedish elite handball players (9 men, 9 women) were encouraged to talk about their careers with foci on both athletic and non-athletic development (Ekengren et al., submitted). Narratives about their experiences of playing both in professional club and the NT were extracted from a larger data set and thematically analysed (Braun, Clarke & Terry 2015).

 Results: The national team was described as a great reward for their performance efforts and achievements, but also as a burden of being time and energy consuming:

 It’s a great honour to play in the national team, and you don’t want to turn it down. But I didn’t get the recovery I required to be able to play in both. So, I had to say “no”, because it tears greatly. It wasn’t right to my club that pays my salary. (Female player 7)

 Major themes outlining the players’ perceived demands in the NT transition were:

• “it wears and tears a lot physically and psychologically” (e.g., brings higher performance demands but also leaves small time for recovery);
• “you are caught in the treadmill of recurrent events (e.g., difficult to maintain good life quality being away from family)
• “you are torn between the two team” (e.g., conflicting interests in professional and national team)
• “you are torn between different roles” (e.g., between being the NT player and a club player, a players and a family member)

 Discussion and conclusions: The project reveals how professional athletes appraised the increasing demands when selected to the NT. On the one hand, the NT transition was seen as a reward, but on the other hand, the transition demands put players under risk of too high life stress with possible negative consequences (e.g., injuries, burnout, and depression) to follow (e.g., Ivarsson, Stambulova, & Johnson, 2016; Stambulova, 2017). Based on the research findings recommendations will be provided for psychological support of NT-players and their coaches/managers in club and federation. This will include, for example, promoting a holistic view of the players’ situation, individual recovery plans and communication skills.

In cultural sport psychology and athlete migration literature (Ryba, Schinke, Stambulova, & Elbe, 2017) there is a call for studying athletes’ transnational mobility and cultural transitions out of, and back to the country of origin. This call is also echoed in the cultural praxis of athletes’ careers paradigm (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013) attracting attention of career researchers. This study is aimed at exploring “back home” re- adaptation challenges of elite Swedish handball players after several years of playing professionally abroad. Eleven players (six females) were interviewed about their careers from the beginning to the end, and their narratives about the transition back to Sweden were extracted from the larger data set and thematically analysed (Braun & Clarke, 2013). Participants spent abroad for M=7.2±2.8 years, and many of them came back having families and kids. Several informants narrated that the transition was more challenging than they expected, and they (especially at the beginning) felt themselves as strangers in their own land. Five major themes describing the transition challenges were: “to rethink self-identity”, “to renew family life”, “to re- establish links with relatives and family”, “to understand local laws and regulations”, “to keep in pace with the society”. The identity issue was addressed through a sense of being “in between” the identities of the home and the foreign cultures that elevated emotional discomfort, especially at the early phase of re-adjustment. Three themes describing coping strategies used in the re-adaptation were: “don’t give up” (i.e., attempt to change own attitude and the situation to the better), “use social skills” (e.g., be alert and communicate) and “search for social support” (e.g., from a spouse and close family). Based on the findings, recommendations will be provided for pre-retirement planning of elite athletes and psychological support in their cultural transition and re-adaptation back home.

Introduktion

Handboll har en lång tradition inom svensk idrottsrörelse och tillhör de mest populära lagidrotterna. I Sverige finns 110 000 utövare, lika många män och kvinnor, som är aktiva i landets 400 föreningar. Internationella Handbollförbundet har 190 medlemsländer och Sverige är en ledande nation inom världshandbollen med 21 medaljer i OS, VM och EM. Att satsa på en karriär som elitspelare i handboll är attraktivt. I Sverige finns ett Riksidrottsgymnasium och 38 Nationellt godkända idrottsutbildningar som kvalitetssäkras av Svenska Handbollförbundet (SHF). Det innebär att drygt 400 spelare årligen tar examen från ett elithandbollsgymnasium. Trots handbollens utbredning och popularitet finns lite kunskap om handbollskarriären, utifrån övergångar och utmaningar som aktiva ställs inför. Kunskapen är av vikt för aktiva liksom tränare, föräldrar och stödpersoner t.ex. idrottspsykologiska rådgivare. Forskningen är relevant för föreningar, förbund, gymnasier och SHF:s spelarutbildning, landslagsverksamhet och tränarutbildning. Ökad kunskap medför att fler fullföljer och optimerar sin karriär, samt stannar kvar och är välmående en längre period. Dagens idrottsforskning inom karriärområdet och aktuell studie belyser betydelsen av förklaringsmodeller som ser karriären från ett idrottsspecifikt och holistiskt kontext. Forskning som dels fångar den verksamma kulturen, dels studerar den livslånga processen och hela karriären, tillskillnad från enstaka moment.

Syfte & teoretisk ram

Syftet i delstudie 1 är att utifrån intervjuer med etablerade svenska landslagsspelare i handboll studera handbollskarriären och utveckla en Empirisk karriärmodell (EKM) för svenska handbollsspelare. Modellen valideras i tre separata fokusgrupper, bestående av tränare, herr- och damspelare. Syftet i delstudie 2 är att utveckla och validera ett Psykologiskt stödsystem (PSS) för svenska elithandbollsspelare. Utifrån EKM och doktorandens gedigna erfarenhet av tillämpat arbete med svenska elit- och landslagsspelare skapas ett stödsystem, som validering i fyra fokusgrupper; tränare, herr-, damspelare och idrottspsykologiska rådgivare. Utifrån diskussioner och slutsatser sammanställs PSS. Det teoretiska ramverket består av: Cultural praxis of athletes’ careers (Stambulova & Ryba, 2014), Holistic athletic career model (Wylleman, Reints & De Knop, 2013) och Athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003).

Metod

Studiens urval är strategiskt och baseras på att informanterna ska ha spelat minst 20 tävlingslandskamper på seniornivå för Sverige, de ska ha varit professionella idrottare på internationell klubbnivå i minst fem år och vara i slutet av sin karriär, alternativt ha avslutat sin idrottsliga karriär. Om idrottskarriären är avslutad ska avskedet skett inom de närmsta tre åren. Under 2015 har pilotintervju och 18 stycken narrativa intervjuer genomförts. Studien har en jämn fördelning mellan kvinnor och män. De kvinnliga informanternas ålder är mellan 28 och 34 år (M = 30,6, SD = 2,2), de manliga informanternas ålder är mellan 27 och 38 år (M = 34,4, SD = 3,1). I snitt har kvinnorna spelat 83 landskamper (SD = 36,5), männen har i snitt spelat 123 landskamper (SD = 57,3).

Resultat och diskussion

Analys av intervjuer pågår således är studiens resultat och diskussion under arbete. Reflektion från aktuell process är att idrottskarriären är av central betydelse och anges som det område som alltid har prioriterats högst i informanternas liv. Det finnas en tendens i att kvinnor ställs inför en komplexare tillvaro eftersom de väljer att ha uppmärksamhet på parallella områden i livet, som de därmed får hantera. Den ekonomiska verkligheten är av naturliga skäl tuffare för kvinnorna, eftersom ersättningar är markant lägre. Det är också en faktor som skapar ökad fokus på andra områden i livet, främst utbildning. Förståelsen kring det som krävs på internationell nivå, utmaningar som väntar och färdigheter som gynnar, verkar vara relativt låg innan de aktiva i studien de facto hamnar på aktuell nivå. Flera val är medvetna samtidigt som informanterna reflekterar kring att tillfälligheter och tur är återkommande faktorer i deras karriär.

Psychological interventions with elite athletes should benefit from the developmental and preventive perspectives (Stambulova, 2016) keeping in mind the highly stressful nature of elite sports and potential threats for athletes’ mental health (Schinke, Stambulova, Si, & Moore, 2017). The authors of this presentation (2018) explored 18 Swedish professional handball players’ career experiences with foci on major stages and transitions in their athletic and non-athletic developments. The players’ information was consolidated into an empirical career model of Swedish handball players, covering several stages and layers in players’ development with relevant transitions, pathways, and themes describing content of each stage. This empirical model served a basis for planning the intervention study with professional handball players aimed at helping them to develop resources and strategies to meet elite career demands and maintain health and wellbeing. The presentation will focus on development of a career training program (CTP) for 16 professional players (age 18-35) representing an elite handball club in the South of Sweden. The CTP is structured into eight workshops with their content derived from major demands and stressors of handball players during the mastery stage of their careers. After the CTP kick off, major topics of the workshops include: professional players’ values and committed actions, training, performance, lifestyle, and recovery issues, injury prevention, the future and athletic retirement. The content of the workshops guided by a combination of concurrent and proactive approaches will include acceptance and commitment training, life skills development, pre-transition planning, monitoring assessment, and creating a personal development plan.

This study is part of the PhD-project aimed at examining Swedish professional handball players’ career experiences and developing an applied framework to improve career assistance. Inspired by the cultural praxis of athletes’ careers (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013; 2014) we blend theory, research, and practice with the athletes’ cultural and sporting contexts. In the previous part, the author and three co-authors (2018) developed an empirical career model (ECM-H) describing players’ changing demands across career stages from the holistic perspective (Wylleman, Rosier, & De Knop, 2015) and showing that they need different types of career assistance at different stages. This second part study aims to develop and validate an applied framework – the career-long psychological support services (CLPSS). To create the initial version of the CLPSS a heuristic approach combining the ECM-H with the author’s applied sport psychology experiences was used. Then the initial version was validated in two focus groups with elite handball coaches (n=4) and experienced sport psychology consultants (n=3) following Kreuger and Casey’s (2015) recommendations. The participants were positive to the initial version and suggested several improvements. The validated CLPSS implements the whole career and whole person perspectives with the four career stages aligned with age markers and three layers of career assistance issues derived from the Swedish handball context, athletes’ perceived demands, and desirable support from relevant stakeholders (e.g., coaches, parents). The CLPSS helps to understand, what issues to address and when in a career to facilitate players’ coping, reduce unnecessary stress, and promote sustainable careers in elite handball.

The authors of this paper share how they developed and validated an applied framework termed the career-long psychological support services in Swedish handball (CPS-H). The CPS-H is grounded in career research within Swedish handball and examples of efficient career assistance practice complemented by applied experiences of the first author. The authors used a heuristic approach to sketch the CPS-H initial version, which later was validated in three focus groups with end-users (handball players, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners) and transformed into the validated CPS-H. Promoting a combination of the proactive, educational, whole career, whole environment, and whole person approaches, the framework is structured as having interrelated parts addressing questions: where (changes in the contexts), when (ages, career stages), what (athletes’ needs and potential working issues), who (support providers), why (philosophy shared by the stakeholders), and how (forms of services) of psychological support. The authors further reflect on the CPS-H and its implementation and provide general and stage-specific recommendations for support providers. Although the CPS-H is contextualized in a specific sport and culture, some lessons can be applicable across countries and sport boarders. © 2020 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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

In this paper we share how a career assistance program (CAP) was developed, implemented, and evaluated with a Swedish elite handball team. Within this case study the initial version of the CAP’s content was created based on the career-long psychological support services in Swedish handball framework and the first author’s applied experiences. During implementation the head coach terminated unexpectedly and the team appeared in a crisis. This transitional situation led to modification of the CAP to help the players cope with changes. Eighteen players took part in eight workshops dealing with various aspects of their sport and non-sport life (e.g., performance, training, lifestyle, recovery, future planning) with crisis-related issues (e.g., coping with uncertainty) incorporated. Mixed-methods evaluation revealed the players’ perceived increase in personal resources (awareness, skills) and decrease in stress and fatigue. Reflections on working in applied sport psychology from a holistic perspective in a dynamic real-life setting are provided.

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.

Research on the role of sport as a social integrative agent for migrants has provided equivocal results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between ethnic–cultural identity and sport environmental factors. Young migrant male athletes from two different societal and sport contexts were studied: migrants from Eastern European countries living in Greece (n=60) and from Latin America living in Spain (n=60). Participants completed measures of ethnic and cultural identity, task-oriented motivational climate, and autonomy- supportive coaching behaviour. Analysis of variance revealed that Eastern European inhabitants of Greece scored higher on fringe and assimilation, and lower on lack of interaction compared to Latin American inhabitants of Spain. In addition, for the former group, a mastery motivational climate and autonomy-supportive coaching predicted an integrative identity, whereas for the latter group, the motivational environment did not predict acculturation patterns. The results suggest that sport may serve different acculturation purposes, thus explaining to a degree the lack of consistent results regarding the integrative role of sport. The study provides preliminary support for the importance of the sport motivational environment for the facilitation of integration. © 2016 International Society of Sport Psychology.

Background: In Denmark, the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown resulted in a compact season finisher for elite footballers, potentially impacting their mental health.Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the protective role of resilience and the impeding role of trait anxiety on elite footballers’ level and variability of well-being and emotional stability. Material and Methods: One hundred and twenty-five male elite-level players (M_age = 25.04 ± 4.82) completed baseline measures on trait anxiety and resilience. Additionally, well-being and positive and negative affect were assessed before games (n = 24) over 62 days. Separate two-level regression analysis using Bayesian statistics was conducted to test potential relationships. Results: Results show a credible positive relationship between the average level of well-being and within-person variability over time as well as the average level in positive affect. This indicates that resilience might be a protector for mental health. In addition, higher levels of trait anxiety (i.e., subscale concentration disruption) were associated with higher levels of negative affect and higher variability over time. This indicates that trait anxiety might facilitate negative affect. No other credible relationships were found. Conclusion: High resilience and low trait anxiety are identified as relevant factors for mental health within elite footballers during COVID-19. Implications for practice are discussed. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

There is limited evidence for what characteristics of supervision delivery facilitate novice supervisees' development. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between supervision-delivery approaches and the perceptions of service-delivery competence development in novice practitioners. The authors interviewed 9 supervisor-supervisee dyads before and after the academic term in which the supervisees had their first applied experiences. Supervisees also completed reflective journal entries regarding their supervisory experiences and development. Data analysis included constant comparative analysis and triangulation of qualitative results with a practitioner-skills inventory. Different approaches to supervision delivery seemed to contribute similarly to novice supervisees' development. Supervisees developed in more areas when the dyads had consistent meetings, close supervisory relationships, feedback, and frequent opportunities for self-reflection and when supervisors adapted the delivery to the supervisees' developmental levels. In addition, factors in supervisees' background, practice, and supervision that contributed to perceptions of service-delivery competence are discussed. © 2018 Human Kinetics, Inc.

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.

The junior-to-senior transition (JST) is decisive for athletes who want to reach the elite/professional sport level. The JST: (a) is initiated by a set of demands relevant to athletic and non-athletic development, (b) lasts between one and four years, and (c) is characterized by athletes’ high dropout rate (Bruner, Munroe-Chandler, & Spink, 2008; Franck, Stambulova, & Weibull, 2016; Stambulova, 2009). This study is a follow up of the quantitative longitudinal study of the JST in Swedish club-based athletes (Franck et al., 2016; Franck, Stambulova, & Ivarsson, in press) and aimed at further qualitative exploration of the JST process emphasizing social influences involved. Four athletes (age M = 24.2, SD = 1.5) representing tennis, swimming, football, and basketball were interviewed. They were encouraged to reflect retrospectively on their JST process using five measurement points of the longitudinal study as an aid to structure their narratives. The interviews lasted for about 90 minutes. Thematic narrative analysis (Smith, 2016) was used to identify themes related to social influences during the JST and their perceived facilitative or debilitative effects. All four JST narratives were unique, however, to structure the results the narratives were pared to represent individual vs. team sport contexts. The results revealed that the social factors facilitating the JST were shared by both sport contexts and included family support, and good relationships with coaches and peers. The debilitating social factors that worked as the JST barriers were more diverse across the sport contexts. These factors covered a lack of sponsors/financial support and the ambiguity of requirements from the sport federations in individual sports, and changes in the structure of the team and selection to a higher level team not being ready for, in team sports. All participants went through the JST, continued a few years after, and then terminated their athletic careers.

There are as many careers with various pathways as there are athletes, and the interest in the junior-to-senior transition (JST) stems from its particular importance for athletes’ lives when aiming for the senior elite levels of their sports (Stambulova 1994, 2009). This study is a follow-up of the quantitative longitudinal study that investigated the JST process in Swedish sport club athletes (Authors et al. 2016a, 2016b). The aim of this study was to explore two athletes’ (pseudonyms Erik, the swimmer, and Jessika, the tennis player) JST transition pathways, emphasising psychosocial factors that were perceived as facilitating and debilitating the transition process. Narrative type interviews were conducted, and the stories were analysed using the holistic-form structural analysis (Smith 2016). The analysis provided a central storyline (performance narrative) that is similar for both athletes, and two side storylines: Erik’s effort and relationship narrative and Jessika’s injury and reorientation narrative. They shared psychosocial factors that were perceived as facilitating the transition process, including family, coaches and sport club environment. For Erik, the debilitating factors were the negative changes in the group and a poor relationship with the new coach. The debilitating factors that influenced Jessika’s JST were the decrease/loss of financial support and the challenge of facing younger opponents against whom she felt she shouldn’t lose when making a comeback after an injury. After the JST, both Erik and Jessika changed their tracks in life, terminated their athletic careers and focused on pursuing higher education qualifications. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group