Lara-Bercial, S.; McKenna, J. Roots to Grow and Wings to Fly: An Ethnography of Psychosocial Development in Adolescent Performance Sport. Sports2022, 10, 48.
Lara-Bercial, S.; McKenna, J. Roots to Grow and Wings to Fly: An Ethnography of Psychosocial Development in Adolescent Performance Sport. Sports 2022, 10, 48.
Lara-Bercial, S.; McKenna, J. Roots to Grow and Wings to Fly: An Ethnography of Psychosocial Development in Adolescent Performance Sport. Sports2022, 10, 48.
Lara-Bercial, S.; McKenna, J. Roots to Grow and Wings to Fly: An Ethnography of Psychosocial Development in Adolescent Performance Sport. Sports 2022, 10, 48.
Abstract
Part 1 of this 2-paper series identified a wide and deep network of context, generative mechanisms and outcomes responsible for psychosocial development in a performance basketball club. In this – part 2 – study, the stakeholder’s programme theories were tested during a full-season ethnography of the same club. The findings confirm the highly individualised nature of each young person’s journey. Methodologically, immersion in the day-to-day environment generated a fine-grain analysis of the processes involved, including: i) sustained attentional focus; ii) structured and unstructured skill building activities; iii) deliberate and incidental support; and iv) feelings indicating personal growth. Personal development in and through sport is thus shown to be conditional, multi-faceted, time-sensitive and idiosyncratic. The findings of this two-part study are considered to propose a model of psychosocial development in and through sport. This heuristic tool is presented to support sport psychologists, coaches, club administrators and parents to deliberately create and optimise developmental environments.
Keywords
Positive youth development, youth sport, realist evaluation, life skills, personal development.
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.