Student-athletes’ dual career as a psychological and educational phenomenon

Abstract

Introduction. The article analyzes psychological and educational aspects of dual career development for student-athletes. The purpose of the research is to summarize modern ideas about the phenomenon of a dual career pathway, to expand and deepen the knowledge of practitioners providing psychological and educational support for student-athletes. Materials and Methods. By adopting prospective and scientific approaches to studying dual career development of student-athletes, the authors analyzed 45 articles from 250 selected sources on the problem, published on the Web of Science search platform from 2017 to 2021. The keywords for the search engine included the following: ‘mental health’, ‘dual career’, ‘student’ and ‘sport’. In accordance with the research goal, the authors used the following theoretical methods: comparison, clarification and generalization. Results. The study clarifies the content of dual career as a psychological and educational phenomenon in children's and youth sports. The authors have analyzed Russian and international research evidence on supporting dual careers of student-athletes, investigated variants of the structure of dual career support programs, taking into account the socio-cultural component in the development of national scales for evaluating the effectiveness of student-athletes’ dual careers. Contradictions between conceptual approaches to arranging dual careers in the studies of Western European and Eastern European researchers have been revealed. The authors identified different levels of interrelated determinants (from the individual to the macro level) affecting student-athletes’ dual career development. Conclusions. Although the theory of dual career pathway is sufficiently developed in the international scholarly literature, there are significant differences between conceptual approaches to organizing a dual career in different countries. The main difference lies in the content of educational programs for student-athletes, especially their psychological and educational components. The orientation towards basic values (artistic and aesthetic education, respect for the opponent, ‘team spirit’ and others) is characteristic for Russia and Eastern countries, while the technocratic approach and the dominant role of commercialization in the training of student-athletes are emphasized in the USA and Western countries.