Abstract
AbstractThe Developmental Model of Sport Participation describes three pathways that youth can follow: recreational participation, late specialization and early specialization. Many competitive sport programmes are promoting early specialization in hopes that their athletes will gain an advantage over others; however, research indicates that youth who wait until adolescence to specialize in a given sport may achieve physical and psychological benefits. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological effects of sport specialization by examining relationships between youth hockey players’ level of specialization, psychological needs satisfaction (PNS), psychological needs dissatisfaction (PND), mental health and mental illness. Sixty-one youth male hockey players (Mage = 14.90) responded to an online survey. Results indicated that PND according to specialization was significant with early specializers reporting the highest PND and recreational athletes reporting the lowest PND (p = .029), ind...
Highlights
The importance of adolescent mental health has been well-documented in recent years and current research has highlighted important links between mental health and physical and psychological functioning (Keyes, 2005, 2007)
Results from this study found that youth who specialized in hockey before the age of 12 had greater psychological needs dissatisfaction than youth who participated in hockey recreationally
Since psychological needs dissatisfaction is a predictor of mental illness, these results suggest that participating in high level sport at a young age may result in negative psychological consequences
Summary
The importance of adolescent mental health has been well-documented in recent years and current research has highlighted important links between mental health and physical and psychological functioning (Keyes, 2005, 2007). Statistics Canada (2015) reported an increase in mood disorders among youth aged 12–19 years old with numbers increasing by 45% from 2011 to 2014. Mental health is more than the absence of a mental illness, it is a complete state. Keyes (2013) has outlined that youth who flourish report the fewest depressive symptoms and the highest levels of global self-concept, self-determination, closeness to others and school integration. Youth who are languishing report the most depressive symptoms and the lowest levels of global self-concept (Keyes, 2013). As depression is reported as the most common form of mental illness among Canadian youth (Statistics Canada, 2015), mental illness was assessed in the present study using a measure of depression
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