Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Using a three-wave prospective cross-lagged panel design, the study examined six-month stability of burnout, self-compassion and social support among sports coaches in terms of measurement invariance, mean-level change, rank-order stability, and structural stability. The participating coaches (N = 422; Mage = 44.48, SD = 11.03) completed an online questionnaire measuring self-compassion, social support, coach burnout and demographics at baseline and two follow-ups at three months and six months. The various forms of stability were assessed using structural equation modeling. There was no significant mean-level change in burnout, self-compassion, or social support, and all three constructs exhibited measurement invariance. Rank-order stability remained relatively high, ranging from .78 to .94 across the three time points. For all three constructs, covariances between latent factors were invariant over time, indicating high structural stability. While self-compassion and social support were positively related, both were negatively related to coach burnout. These results confirm the importance of preventing and addressing symptoms of burnout, low self-compassion and poor social support in sports settings.

Using a three-wave prospective cross-lagged panel design, the study examined six-month stability of burnout, self-compassion and social support among sports coaches in terms of measurement invariance, mean-level change, rank-order stability, and structural stability. The participating coaches (N = 422; Mage = 44.48, SD = 11.03) completed an online questionnaire measuring self-compassion, social support, coach burnout and demographics at baseline and two follow-ups at three months and six months. The various forms of stability were assessed using structural equation modeling. There was no significant mean-level change in burnout, self-compassion, or social support, and all three constructs exhibited measurement invariance. Rank-order stability remained relatively high, ranging from 0.78 to 0.94 across the three time points. For all three constructs, covariances between latent factors were invariant over time, indicating high structural stability. While self-compassion and social support were positively related, both were negatively related to coach burnout. These results confirm the importance of preventing and addressing symptoms of burnout, low self-compassion and poor social support in sports settings.

This study explored the experiences and perceptions of coaches, athletes, and integrated support teams towards the management of three Paralympic teams across North America and Europe. Six focus groups with athletes, three interviews with head coaches, and 10 interviews with support team members were conducted and analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis. Our analysis resulted in three overarching themes to portray the coaches' role and behaviours in managing their (1) athletes, (2) integrated support teams, and (3) team as a collective unit. All teams were made up of a diverse group of athletes that required individualized considerations regarding age, finances, and disability. Coaches were successful when they fostered autonomy and managed interpersonal conflict by utilizing their integrated support teams to foster cohesiveness. This study provides an in-depth view of the role of the coach in managing national parasport teams by incorporating multiple perspectives from three teams around the world.

The purpose of this study was to explore interpretations and implications of head coaches ' use of humour in three national Paralympic teams from the perspective of athletes and integrated support staff. We conducted six focus groups with 19 Paralympic athletes and individual interviews with 10 support staff members across the teams. Our reflexive thematic analysis resulted in two overarching themes that helped us understand how humour influenced feelings of psychological safety in the team environment, as well as considerations or challenges with using humour as a coaching strategy, including miscommunication or misunderstanding. Relational awareness, emotional intelligence, and effective communication were identified as important coaching competencies to consider when implementing humour as a leadership behaviour, particularly in an environment where power differentials of status and disability were present. The study was among the first to explore interpretations and implications of humour as a coaching strategy from athletes and staff in the high-performance parasport context. Coaches who implement humour within their environments are encouraged to reflect on the receivers of the interaction and how to maximise the facilitative rather than debilitative functions of humour as a "double-edged sword" to ultimately promote team satisfaction, well-being, and success.

Background: Some studies suggest that elite athletes experience adverse mental health symptoms at rates commensurate with the general population, despite the well-established buffering effects of exercise. Within contact sports, such as ice-hockey, recurrent concussions may be a source of this discrepancy. We compared the point prevalence of various mental health outcomes with other athlete and general population samples, as well as investigated their relationship with concussive events.

Methods: We surveyed 648 active ice hockey players from the top two men's tiers and the top women's tier in Swedish elite ice hockey on lifetime concussive events, hazardous alcohol use, problematic social media use, depression, anxiety, and burnout.

Results: Hazardous alcohol use was more prevalent among male ice hockey players (29.5% AUDIT-C ≥ 6) compared to other athlete and general population samples, while other mental health symptoms were less common. Female ice hockey players reported higher hazardous alcohol consumption (36.4% AUDIT-C ≥ 4) than another athlete sample and more burnout (19.1%) than the general population. After adjusting for covariates, athletes with 3+ concussive events had 2.1 times the odds of elevated depressive symptoms and 3.5 times the odds of elevated burnout symptoms compared to those with no concussion history. Treating lifetime concussive events as a continuous predictor revealed positive correlations with all outcomes except for hazardous alcohol use.

Conclusions: Mental health outcome rates among active elite ice hockey athletes differ from those of other athlete and general population samples, whilst concussive events may be particularly linked to elevated symptoms of depression and burnout.

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated numerous changes in daily life, including the cancellation and restriction of sports globally. Because sports participation contributes positively to the development of student-athletes, restricting these activities may have led to long-term mental health changes in this population. Using a repeated cross-sectional study design, we measured rates of depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 and anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 scale in student-athletes attending elite sport high schools in Sweden during the second wave of the pandemic (February 2021; n = 7021) and after all restrictions were lifted (February 2022; n = 6228). Depression among student-athletes decreased from 19.8% in 2021 to 17.8% in 2022 (p = .008, V = .026), while anxiety screening did not change significantly (17.4% to 18.4%, p > .05). Comparisons between classes across years revealed older students exhibited decreases in depressive symptoms, while younger cohorts experienced increases in symptoms of anxiety from 2021 to 2022. Logistic regressions revealed that being female, reporting poorer mental health due to COVID-19, and excessive worry over one's career in sports were significant predictors of both depression and anxiety screenings in 2022. Compared to times when sports participation was limited, the lifting of restrictions was associated with overall reduced levels of depression, but not anxiety.

Although sport psychology practitioners and researchers acknowledge the importance of continued professional development (CPD) for professional effectiveness and excellence, few studies have explored the influence of CPD activities on the practitioners' practice and thinking. This study examined qualified Swedish sport psychology practitioners' experiences of engaging in a CPD program and how it impacted their professional development. The Swedish Sports Confederation offers a CPD program that targets performance enhancement services and psychotherapy for sport psychology practitioners. We explored the influence of this CPD program on the professional development of 13 graduates (five females; age in years: M = 41.2, SD = 8.3) via semi-structured interviews. Our stance involved a realist ontology and constructionist epistemology. We followed the six-step Reflexive Thematic Analysis procedures to analyze data. We identified four themes of CPD: (1) Critique (participants decided to do the CPD program because of perceived gaps in their knowledge and skills), (2) Change (participants discussed several changes as a result of the CPD program), (3) Context (participants discussed the aspects of the CPD program that promoted change), and (4) Challenge (participants mentioned issues related to having completed the program). The study provides insights into the value of CPD activities for sport psychology practitioners, advances current knowledge on practitioner maturation, and illustrates how CPD fits within a practitioner's lifelong learning. Future research could investigate the professional development of mid-career sport psychology practitioners engaging in other CPD programs to confirm or extend this work.

IntroductionAlthough sport psychology practitioners acknowledge the benefits of continued professional development (CPD), few studies have explored the influence of such activities on the practitioners’ practice and thinking (Quarteroli et al., 2021). This study aimed to examine qualified sport psychology practitioners’ experiences engaging in a CPD program and how it impacted their professional development.MethodsThe Swedish Sports Confederation offers a CPD programme that targets performance enhancement services and psychotherapy for sport psychology practitioners. We explored the influence of this CPD program on the professional development of thirteen graduates (five female; age in years: M = 41.2, SD = 8.3) via semi-structured interviews. Our stance involved a realist ontology and constructionist epistemology (Elder-Vass, 2012). We followed the six-step reflexive thematic analysis procedures to analyze data (Braun et al., 2019).ResultsFour themes of CPD emerged: (1) Critique (participants decided to do the CPD course because of perceived gaps in their knowledge and skills), (2) Change (participants discussed changes they experienced as a result of the course), (3) Context (participants discussed the aspects of the CPD course that helped them change), and (4) Challenge (participants mentioned issues related to having completed the course).DiscussionThe study provides insights into the value of CPD education for sport psychology practitioners, helps bolster confidence in current knowledge on practitioner maturation and illustrates how CPD fits within a practitioner’s lifelong learning. Future research could investigate the professional development of other mid-career sport psychology practitioners to confirm or extend this work.

The purpose of this scoping review was to provide a broad overview of the literature pertaining to parasport coaches, including information regarding the size and scope of research, the populations and perspectives obtained, and the type of methods used to conduct the research. Data were collected and analyzed using a six-stage framework for conducting scoping reviews. The results revealed that the majority of articles were based on interviews, and an overwhelming majority of the participants were men coaching at the high-performance level in North America. Three of the most frequent topics were becoming a parasport coach, being a parasport coach, and having general parasport coaching knowledge. Articles ranged in date from 1991 to 2018, with 70% of empirical articles published from 2014 onward, indicating an emerging interest in this field of research. This review has the potential to advance the science and practice of parasport coaching at all levels.

This feature article is the authors’ popular summary, written exclusively for idrottsforum.org, of the original article published online in Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, Issue 1, Volume 38, 2021

Syftet med kapitlet är att presentera och diskutera teoretiska och praktiska frågor på ett sätt som främjar ett långlivat och hälsosamt ledarskap med fokus på tävlingsidrotten. Författarna utgår från det förenklade antagandet att «en coach som mår bra» sannolikt är mer framgångsrik och långlivad i jämförelse med en coach som mår dåligt. 

It is common in elite sport to monitor athletes' training load, injuries and illnesses, but mental distress is rarely included. An improved understanding of the epidemiology of mental distress among elite Para athletes and how their coaches perceive such monitoring would allow us to better develop and implement preventive measures. The purpose of this study was therefore to (1) prospectively describe elite Para athletes' mental distress, before, during and after the Beijing Paralympic Games (Paralympics Games 22 = PG22); and to (2) gain a better understanding of if and potentially how awareness of athletes' mental distress changed, through weekly monitoring, and influenced how coachers perceive athletes' mental distress and if they accounted for this before, during and after PG22. A mixed-method study design was used, in which prospective mental distress (depression and anxiety) data were collected weekly from 13 [Swedish] elite Para athletes in preparation, during and after PG22. Data were screened and evaluated weekly by a physiotherapist and a sports psychologist, and coaches also received weekly reports. A focus-group interview with the coaches were conducted post Paralympics to address coaches' awareness about mental distress and athlete health monitoring in Parasport. For data analyses, descriptive statistics was used for the quantitative data and a content analysis was conducted for the qualitative data. The results reveled the following proportion of datapoints indicating symptoms of anxiety and depression: before PG22 (15.8 and 19.1%); during PG22 (47.6 and 38.2%); and after PG22 (0 and 11.8%). The qualitative results indicated that coaches perceived athlete health monitoring as helpful for increasing their awareness of mental distress, and as a useful tool to initiate support for their athletes as well as improving their coaching. In summary, this cohort of elite Para athletes reported a high proportion of mental distress during the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing. The results also show that it is important and feasible to monitor Para athletes' mental distress to detect and manage early symptoms of mental distress.

BACKGROUND: Chronic job insecurity seems to be a prominent feature within elite sport, where coaches work under pressure of dismissals if failing to meet performance expectations of stakeholders. The aim of the current study was to get a deeper understanding of elite football coaches' experiences of getting fired and how they made sense of that process.

METHOD: A qualitative design using semi-structured interviews was conducted with six elite football coaches who were fired within the same season. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was chosen as framework to analyze the data.

RESULTS: The results reflected five emerging themes: Acceptance of having an insecure job, working for an unprofessional organization and management, micro-politics in the organization, unrealistic and changing performance expectation, and emotional responses.

CONCLUSION: All coaches expressed awareness and acceptance regarding the risk of being fired. However, they experienced a lack of transparency and clear feedback regarding the causes of dismissal. This led to negative emotional reactions as the coaches experienced being evaluated by poorly defined expectations and by anonymous stakeholders. Sports organizations as employers should strive to be transparent during dismissal. In addition, job insecurity is a permanent stressor for coaches and should be acknowledged and targeted within coach education.

BACKGROUND: The evaluative nature of high performance (HP) sport fosters performance expectations that can be associated with harsh scrutiny, criticism, and job insecurity. In this context, (HP) sport is described as a highly competitive, complex, and turbulent work environment. The aim of this longitudinal, quantitative study was to explore whether HP coaches' perceptions of job insecurity and job value incongruence in relation to work would predict their psychological well- and ill-being over time.

METHODS: HP coaches (n = 299) responded to an electronic questionnaire at the start, middle, and end of a competitive season, designed to measure the following: job insecurity, values, psychological well-being (vitality and satisfaction with work), and psychological ill-being (exhaustion and cynicism). Structural equation model analyses were conducted using Mplus.

RESULTS: Experiencing higher levels of job insecurity during the middle of the season significantly predicted an increase in coaches' psychological ill-being, and a decrease in their psychological well-being at the end of the season. However, value incongruence did not have a significant longitudinal impact.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings cumulatively indicate that coaches' perceptions of job insecurity matter to their psychological health at work. Consequently, it is recommended that coaches and organizations acknowledge and discuss how to handle job security within the HP sport context.

The purpose of the current study was to provide insights in how and why four head coaches in elite football experienced being either high or low in burnout symptoms (BS) during a competitive season. A longitudinal sequential quantitative-qualitative mixed method approach was used to enhance the understanding of coaches' experiences. First, data were collected using online questionnaires at the start and at the end of the competitive season with all coaches working at the Norwegian Elite Football League level. Second, in-depth interviews were conducted with four head coaches who were purposefully selected based on having the two highest and the two lowest burnout scores across the season compared with the overall sample. A quantitative approach was used to explore whether these four coaches differed when compared with the overall population on the associated variables: performance, budget, quality of motivation, perceived workload, work-home-interference (WHI), and recovery. A qualitative approach helped gain more insight in the experiences these four coaches had with possible onset variables. Analyses comparing the two sets of coaches, indicated no difference related to performance, budget and workload. However, the motivational profile, WHI, and ability to meet recovery demands were variables that contributed to explain differences in coaches' BS.

Using a qualitative retrospective approach, this paper investigates how some work-related demands led to burnout among four professional coaches. Self-determination theory (SDT) offered a sound theoretical framework to better understand the motivational process leading to serious negative outcomes (Ryan & Deci, 2002). Findings indicated that all coaches experienced working in a maladaptive environment, exemplified by experiencing very heavy workloads, a lack of leader support, and work-related conflicts. These experiences had a detrimental effect on the coaches' motivation. Psychological need thwarting and a shift towards a more controlled form of motivation explained why coaches became increasingly at risk for burning out, a process that evolved over time. All four coaches experienced a wide range of burnout symptoms. Findings from this study highlight the importance for sports organizations to better cater for the psychological needs of professional coaches to prevent burnout.

Being subject to a great range of demands is believed to increase burnout propensity in high-performance coaches. This study is the first to explore whether the 4-step self-determination theory process model is a valuable framework to better understand the process influencing burnout and well-being in high-performance coaches (N = 343, M = 40.33 years) throughout a competitive season. Findings indicated that coaches on average increased in burnout and decreased in well-being. Hypotheses were to a large extent supported: change in perceived environment → change in psychological need satisfaction → change in autonomous motivation → change in burnout and well-being.

Objectives

The aim of the current study was twofold. First, to explore whether there were different trajectories of exhaustion among high-performance coaches over the course of a competitive season. Then, to investigate whether workload-related variables and motivational regulations were associated with exhaustion class membership.

Methods and design

299 high-performance coaches responded to an online survey at the start, middle, and end of a competitive season, assessing exhaustion, workload, work home interference (WHI), recovery, and motivational regulations. Latent class growth analyses were used to identify different trajectories of perceived exhaustion. Further, multinomial logistic regression examined class associations for workload-related variables and motivational regulations at the start and at the end of competitive season.

Results

Four different trajectories of perceived exhaustion among coaches were identified, termed respectively “High” (10%), “Increase” (15%), “Decrease” (4%) and “Low” (71%). Higher levels of workload and WHI were associated to classes with higher levels of exhaustion. Higher levels of recovery, and intrinsic and identified regulations were associated to classes with lower levels of exhaustion. Adaptive and maladaptive profiles were identified.

Conclusions

Different trajectories of exhaustion among high-performance coaches over the course of a competitive season were found. A maladaptive profile was associated with higher perceived workload and WHI, as well as lower levels of recovery, intrinsic and identified regulations, when compared to the adaptive profile.

Mike at 49 years old is an experienced professional in the field of sport psychology. He holds a dual position as a part-time mental performance consultant and teaching sport psychology as adjunct faculty at a local college. Upon graduation, Mike ended his running career and decided to pursue graduate studies in the United States in applied sport psychology – an emerging professional field internationally. Being on sick leave meant that Mike was able to focus on his recovery and through counseling therapy and mindfulness exercises, he was able to gradually overcome his acute burnout episode. Fellow professionals attending the session thanked Mike for sharing his personal experiences so openly. Several acknowledged that they share similar experiences. Reflecting on the session, the topic of self-care, establishing professional boundaries and preventing burnout, seems to be a prevalent issue for sport psychology professionals.

Mike at 49 years old is an experienced professional in the field of sport psychology. He holds a dual position as a part-time mental performance consultant and teaching sport psychology as adjunct faculty at a local college. A strong work ethic and, at times, perfectionistic tendencies are rooted in his past as an elite athlete. He competed as a distance runner for 13 years. Upon graduation, Mike ended his running career and decided to pursue graduate studies in the United States in applied sport psychology. While flourishing professionally, his personal life had taken a toll. He got married shortly after finishing graduate school and decided to move to Europe. Things got even more challenging with his children's birth and seemed impossible for Mike to juggle the multitude of demands, and to balance time with his family with professional responsibilities. Lack of self-care became a more pressing issue in coping with the multiple demands of consulting, teaching and research. This chapter discusses Mike's story, his experiences, personality traits, situational factors, symptoms experienced, actions taken to overcome his burnout and lessons learned from the experience, and key aspects of a sport psychology professionals regarding prioritizing self-care and preventing burnout.

En intervjustudie med idrottare och deras tränare visar på likheter, men också en del intressanta skillnader i sättet att se på trötthetsbegreppet. Artikeln diskuterar vad det kan bero på och ger förslag på hur tränare kan bli bättre på att läsa av sina utövares trötthet.

Högpresterande människor i arbetslivet och idrotten möter likartade krav på prestation, engagemang och uthållighet.

Hur väl idrottare lyckas upprätthålla hälsa och prestationsutveckling trots hög belastning bestäms i huvudsak av den psykofysiologiska återhämtningsprocessen, vars främsta syfte är att eliminera trötthet och återställa vitalitet.

Därför utbildas idrottare till att bli medvetna om sitt återhämtningsbehov och hur det ska tillgodoses.

Människor i yrkeslivet där­emot möter ofta hög belastning med nedprioritering av sin sömn och återhämtning.En förutsättning för ett långsiktigt engagemang är att tidigt upptäcka tecken på dysfunktionell återhämtning och främja miljöer med utrymme för dynamisk växling mellan anspänning och vila.

Elite Para athletes report a high incidence of sports injuries, illnesses and other health issues. Despite this, there are few prevention programmes in Para sport, and many of the existing prevention programmes are not adapted to Para athletes. To improve the success of preventive measures, it has been suggested that sports safety work should facilitate health promotion, including athlete health education. Therefore, the overarching aim of this project is to evaluate an accessible health promotion web platform as part of a complex intervention that aims to improve knowledge of athlete health in Para sport. In this protocol, the development, future implementation and evaluation of the intervention are described. To inform the implementation and use of such interventions, it is recommended to involve end users in the development and implementation process. Therefore, a participatory design process, including athletes and the sports organisation, was used to develop an accessible health promotion web platform. To evaluate this complex intervention, a process evaluation combining quantitative evaluation assessing causal pathways with qualitative methods assessing multifaceted pathways will be used. The primary outcomes are injury/illness incidence, athlete health parameters, health literacy and user behaviour. A cohort of elite Para athletes (n=150) from Sweden and South Africa will be invited to participate. This project will be the first that aims to improve athlete health in Para sport through pragmatic and accessible health promotion. It is a boundary-crossing project that will be conducted in a real-world sport setting, including athletes with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Framgångar före och under ett VM ställer stora och olika krav på coachernas kompetens. Behovet av en kontinuerlig kompetensutveckling är stort, men enligt coacherna själva är det inget som sker systematiskt. Det är den egna drivkraften som styr utvecklingen.