Swedish university student-athletes’ dual career scenarios and competences

Abstract

The paper presents the Swedish data on university student-athletes' dual career (DC) competences and coping, from the European project "Gold in Education and Elite Sport" (GEES). A cross-sectional quantitative design was implemented with the objectives to explore: (a) the student-athletes' perceived need to develop DC competences in order to successfully combine sport and study, (b) if the student-athletes experienced and how they coped with specific DC scenarios, and (c) the magnitude of the association between the student-athletes' possession of prioritised DC competences for each scenario and their scenario-specific coping. Seventy-one university student-athletes with a mean age of 25.21 completed the DC competency questionnaires developed within GEES. The student-athletes reported their perception of importance and possession of 38 DC competences (e.g. cope with stress, prioritising), as well as coping with seven DC scenarios (e.g. miss significant days of study), and selected the five most important competences (from the list of 38) to cope with each scenario. The results revealed that the student-athletes: (a) perceived a need to develop more than 70% of the DC competences to successfully combine sport and studies, (b) had experienced and coped average-to-good with the DC scenarios, and (c) possession of the top five prioritised competences was moderately-to-strongly related to their coping in three scenarios. The study extends understanding of Swedish university student-athletes' DC competences and has contributed to the development of Swedish National Guidelines for elite athletes' dual careers (2018).

Maintaining dual career balance: A scenario perspective on Swedish university student-athletes’ experiences and coping

“…DC competences have also been explored in relation to DC scenarios. When asked to choose the most important DC competences for coping with various scenarios the student-athletes across De and Linnér et al (2019) highlighted the competences as follows. For the Exam and Miss days of study scenarios student-athletes emphasized prioritizing, time management, self-discipline, a present focus, and willingness to make sacrifices.…”

“…For the Exam and Miss days of study scenarios student-athletes emphasized prioritizing, time management, self-discipline, a present focus, and willingness to make sacrifices. For the Social life scenario, they emphasized the ability to make and maintain social contacts, time management, and willingness to make sacrifices Linnér et al, 2019).…”

“…Previous research has suggested that beyond the scenarios developed in GEES (Wylleman et al, 2017) more scenarios may exist (Linnér et al, 2019). To forward our understanding into DC scenarios we combine it with optimal DC balance (Stambulova et al, 2015).…”

From athletic talent development to dual career development? A case study in a Finnish high performance sports environment

“…Integration of sport with education or work has been termed dual career (DC) in the European sport psychology discourse. It has been argued that developing a DC would provide athletes with resources and competencies to combine different domains of life, help create a balanced lifestyle, and improve well-being (Linnér et al, 2019;Stambulova et al, 2015). However, DC pathways are also associated with potential challenges, such as fatigue, role strain, and scarce social life, for the student-athletes attempting to find a balance between the different demands (Condello et al, 2019;Stambulova et al, 2015).…”

“…However, DC pathways are also associated with potential challenges, such as fatigue, role strain, and scarce social life, for the student-athletes attempting to find a balance between the different demands (Condello et al, 2019;Stambulova et al, 2015). Thus, DC athletes would benefit from a supportive environment that provides DC competencies (e.g., planning, management, adaptability), focus on the whole person, and where individuals from different domains work together (De Brandt et al, 2018;Knight et al, 2018;Linnér et al, 2019). Since the European Commission (2012) published the DC guidelines for environments adopting talent development policies, subsequent research on environmental influences has mainly focussed on the actors in the student-athletes' microenvironment (e.g., peers, coaches, and teachers) that underpin the athletes' development .…”