FEPSAC Position Statement: Athletes' dual careers in the European context.

The aim of this FEPSAC Position Statement is to summarize current knowledge about athletes' dual careers (DCs) in the European context and propose recommendations for future DC research, practice, and policy. Inspired by the European Union's Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes (European Commission, 2012), researchers, practitioners, and policy makers collaborated over the last decade to create the European DC discourse as a context-informed and negotiated body of DC knowledge. In this paper, we proceed from analyzing this body of knowledge using recent review papers and European DC psychological research projects to formulating seven postulates summarizing DC research findings on factors influencing athletes in their striving for DC excellence. These factors include (1) context, (2) pathways and transitions, (3) challenges, (4) resources and coping, (5) support and empowerment, (6) student-athletes' mental health, and (7) DC development environments. In the final section, we acknowledge the contributions of European DC discourse in serving athletes in their pursuit of DC excellence and European DC culture. We also provide a critical discussion on DC knowledge gaps and, on behalf of FEPSAC, offer recommendations for DC research, practice, and policy in Europe.

The social environment of talent development in youth sport.

During the last decade, talent identification and development research that favours an individual perspective has been complemented by a focus on young athletes' social environments, termed "athletic talent development environments" (ATDEs). Two major lines of research have created a foundation for an ecological vision of talent development as the mutual accommodation between athletes and their ATDEs and of career development as an athlete's journey through various athletic and non-athletic environments. The Talent Development Environment Questionnaire allows the quantitative screening of athletes' environments, while the holistic ecological approach (HEA) promotes in-depth qualitative case studies of ATDEs. In this chapter, we focus mainly on the HEA, including: (a) two models that combine to illustrate an ATDE; (b) a summary of empirical case studies of successful environments in various sports and countries, culminating in a set of shared features of ATDEs that promote athletes' wellbeing and athletic and personal development; (c) an overview of recent trends within HEA (e.g. interorganisational collaboration in talent development) and (d) recommendations for coaches and sport psychology consultants, emphasising the importance of integrating efforts across the whole environment and building strong and coherent organisational cultures. In the discussion, we elaborate on developing the HEA discourse and point to future challenges for researchers and practitioners.

Living Life Through Sport: The Transition of Elite Spanish Student-Athletes to a University Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences.

Interest in studying the different transitions faced by elite athletes throughout their careers has grown significantly in recent years. While transition from secondary school to university is an important research area in Europe, there is a void of studies on how student-athletes experience the transition to specific degrees. One of the most sought-after university degrees among elite athletes in Spain is a degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (PASS). The first aim of this study was to investigate the main demands, barriers, and resources perceived by elite student-athletes in various phases of dual career transition to a university degree in PASS. The second aim was to identify the transition pathways pursued depending on the subjective importance they attached to sport and education. Eleven elite student-athletes (M age = 20.7, SD = 1.6 years) who were in their second and third year of the degree in PASS participated in semi-structured interviews. Deductive-inductive thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed three main themes: (a) general university transition issues, (b) PASS-specific transition issues, and (c) transition pathways. Our results show that the close link between sport and the content of the degree was perceived by the elite student-athletes as their main resource. This link, however, was also perceived as a major barrier as the compulsory practical subjects entailed a risk of injury or overtraining that could affect both athletic and academic development. We noticed how the importance they attached to sport or studies varied at different moments of the transition period, a phenomenon we termed "fluid transition pathways." Dual career promotion for elite athletes is an important part of European sports policy, and our findings provide new knowledge that could help Spanish PASS faculties develop specific assistance programs to support transitioning student-athletes.

Crisis-transitions in athletes: current emphases on cognitive and contextual factors.

During the last decade, the field of athlete career research has seen much expansion. Researchers established the holistic lifespan and ecological approaches, introduced cultural praxis of athletes' careers paradigm, and updated the taxonomy of athletes' transitions. However, recent transition research focused mainly on the transition process and factors contributing to successful transitions, while crisis-transitions and factors contributing to ineffective coping have been largely ignored. The aim of this paper is to facilitate relevant research and practice through (1) positioning athletes' developmental crises within the context of the current transition literature, (2) introducing two new approaches (termed 'cognitive turn' and 'cultural turn') with a potential to enhance our understanding of the phenomenon, and (3) outlining crisis-coping interventions.

The Work of Cultural Transition: An Emerging Model.

In today's uncertain, fluid job market, transnational mobility has intensified. Though the concept of cultural transition is increasingly used in sport and career research, insight into the processes of how individuals produce their own development through work and relationships in shifting cultural patterns of meaning remains limited. The transnational industry of sports, in which athletes' psychological adjustment to cultural transitions has implications for both performance and meaningful life, serves as a backdrop for this article. This study applied the life story method to interviews with 15 professional and semi-professional athletes, focusing particularly on the cultural transition aspect of their transnational athletic careers. The aims of the study were to identify the developmental tasks of cultural transitions and strategies/mechanisms through which cultural transitions were enacted. Three underlying mechanisms of the transition process that assisted athletic career adaptability were social repositioning, negotiation of cultural practices, and meaning reconstruction. Based on the data analyses, a temporal model of cultural transition is proposed. The results of this research provide professionals working in the fields of career counseling and migrant support with a content framework for enhancing migrant workers' adaptabilities and psychological wellbeing.

Stages and demands in the careers of Canadian National Hockey League players.

Researchers have identified some demands of Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) players, yet there is little direction for players hoping to reach the lucrative league. The objectives of this study were to identify the stages, statuses and demands in Canadian NHL players' careers and propose an empirical career model of Canadian NHL players. In total, 5 rookies, 5 veterans and 13 retirees had their interviews undergo an interpretive thematic analysis. Prospects face the NHL combine, training camp and minor league assignment. While developing into NHL players, rookies deal with NHL call-ups, team competition and formative production while sophomores seemed preoccupied by the opposition. Prime veterans become All-Stars by garnering point production and challenging for the Stanley Cup while seasoned veterans remain relevant through training camps. A discussion about the model's viability is followed by applications for sport psychology researchers and practitioners.