Scandinavian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

Navigating the Unknown

Andres Ramos — 2024-07-05

The purpose of this study was to explore career development narratives of esport players. Three Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players were interviewed about their careers. Two of the participants had retired and one was still active. Their competition level ranged from top 10 nationally to top-20 internationally. The interview transcripts were analyzed using a holistic-form structural analysis, which resulted in three overarching narratives (i.e. performance, relational and sink or swim complemented by multiple narrative threads (e.g., discovery, relational). Due to the multi-faceted nature of esports, it might be common for esport players to tell dialogical stories. The study highlighted challenges esport players face (e.g., balancing esports, work and social/academic life), which are exacerbated by the unstable structure of esports and a lack of cultural narrative templates helping esport players to make meaning of their careers. Social and professional support facilitating narrative flexibility and dual careers might help esport players cope with challenges and become successful in esports and upon retirement.

Psychiatric Disorders in Elite Athletes

Katja Rungstrøm — 2024-05-15

Previous literature has described the importance of increased knowledge about the mental health of elite athletes. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate clinically diagnosed psychiatric disorders in elite athletes, including possible connections between being an elite athlete and psychiatric disorders. The databases EMBASE, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus and Psychinfo have been systematically searched from January 1975 to December 2022. Two authors have conducted title-, abstract- and full-text screening as well as quality assessment independently. The search identified 12,490 records up until December 2022. After a removal of duplicates and double screening, 11 studies consisting of 4,492 elite athletes were included. The mean age of the included athletes was 18.6 years, and most studies included were Scandinavian. Most studies investigated multiple types of sport simultaneously. Findings revealed that eating disorder was the most studied psychiatric disorder in this population, while depression and anxiety were more sparsely investigated. Furthermore, female athletes had a higher occurrence of both eating disorders, depression, and anxiety than male athletes. Additional studies based on diagnostic interviews need to be conducted to investigate possible associations between elite athletes and psychiatric disorders.

Depressive symptom profiles in Icelandic team sport athletes: nine quantitative case analyses over a 6-month period

Frida Run Einarsdottir — 2024-11-14

Most studies to-date have used mean difference analyses to explore group differences in depressive symptoms among athletes. However, these traditional group mean analyses may mask important information concerning symptom profiles such as the severity, type, and number of symptoms. In this study, we examined idiographic depressive symptom profiles in nine Icelandic team sport athletes with recurrent clinically significant depressive symptoms (clinical symptoms at baseline and six-month follow-up) and those with depressive symptoms only at one time point. The aim was to explore depressive symptoms patterns in these two groups and their relationship with daily functioning and changes in sport-specific factors. Among those with recurrent clinical symptoms, depressive symptom profiles were stable, both in terms of type and severity of symptoms, while those with clinically significant symptoms observed only at one time point showed generally fewer symptoms, symptoms profiles were more variable, and total symptom scores were less severe. Interestingly, no clear associations were found between sport-specific variables, such as satisfaction with the head coach or subjective athletic performance, and depressive symptoms, as several cases reported satisfaction in these areas despite significant depressive symptoms. This idiographic approach highlights the need for targeted and continuous assessment to better understand depressive symptoms in athletes.

Cultural Leadership in Physical Education and Youth Sport

Louise Kamuk Storm — 2024-04-10

This paper is the product of a Nordic Think Tank. The purpose was to unify experienced educators and expert researchers to (a) provide a set of working definitions for cultural leadership in physical education and youth sport, and (b) set an agenda for future research and educational practice in both contexts. A cultural leader is the professional and social role of a person who has legitimacy (is in the position) and responsibility to develop, maintain, and (if needed) attempt to change culture of a group of learners, such as pupils or athletes, in the service of good (i.e., helps pupils or athletes to thrive inside and outside school or sport; are continuing to learn, develop in a holistic way, and meet their potential). Six postulates representing consensus views of the invited group are proposed: (1) cultural leadership is a meta-function that permeates all other pedagogical functions of the physical education teacher and the youth sport coach; (2) today cultural leadership is more important than ever; (3) cultural leadership in physical education and youth sport must be in the service of good; (4) cultural leadership in physical education and youth sport requires specific competencies and virtues; (5) culture is co-produced, but the physical education teacher and youth sport coach have a special responsibility; (6) cultural leadership should be integrated in physical education teacher education and youth sport coach education in the future; and future research should explore teachers and coaches as cultural leaders to inform future educational practices.

Investigating the relationship between achievement motive and performance in elite-level football goalkeepers

Esben Elholm Madsen — 2024-04-10

The goalkeeper position in football is highly specific. Investigating the achievement motive of elite-level goalkeepers might help football coaches in general, goalkeeping coaches, and sports psychologists to gain insight into and knowledge of the approaches needed for enhancing the performance of this unique position within the football team. This study aimed to examine the achievement motive for male goalkeepers playing at the elite level in Denmark (n = 34) and Iceland (n = 20) and to investigate the relationship between the achievement motive, age and performance. In addition to biographical questions, the study employed the Achievement Motives Scale – Sport. The findings from the present study suggest that goalkeepers are characterized by higher hope for success than fear of failure values, like other elite athletes, while younger goalkeepers had significantly higher fear of failure. There were no differences between starting and non-starting goalkeepers, but we found that performance level was associated with fear of failure when controlling for the goalkeeper’s status (starters versus non-starters) and playing country. Finally, goalkeepers playing in Denmark showed lower fear of failure than goalkeepers playing in Iceland. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Examining the effects of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) programme on sport-specific dispositional mindfulness, sport anxiety, and experiential acceptance in Martial Arts

Torbjörn Josefsson — 2024-04-10

The aim of the study was to examine effects of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) programme on sport-specific dispositional mindfulness, sport anxiety, and experiential acceptance, compared to an inactive control group, in a population of Martial Arts (MA) athletes. Twenty-three MA athletes were subjected to the MAC intervention, and 22 MA athletes comprised the control group. To analyse potential differences in the outcome variables between the two groups, Bayesian repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was used. Findings showed that the MAC-group had greater increases over time in the sport-specific mindfulness subscales awareness and acceptance and acceptance, compared to the control group. In contrast, no interaction effects were found for present moment attention (AMQ), experiential acceptance (BEAQ), and sport anxiety (SAS-2). Overall, the present study adds further information and understanding about the effectiveness and implementation of the MAC programme.

Editorial: SJSEP Welcomes Conceptual Papers

Kristoffer Henriksen — 2024-09-26