In Québec, the programme Sport-études saw the light in the mid-80’s with the sole purpose of addressing a fast growing need, that is: to help youth committed to excellence in sport pursue their goals without hindering their educational process. This program helps more than 5 000 student-athletes (age 12 to 17) to benefit from the special circumstances within which they can fully commit to a single sport. If that intensive training regimen is well integrated to the student-athlete’s daily school schedule, we question the early specialisation and investment that seems to be encouraged by the program’s own settings.
Considering these settings, we seek a better understanding on how it impacts student-athlete’s development. Therefore, we passed an online questionnaire to 226 student-athletes including a the Youth Experience Survey for Sport, which covers 5 dimension of youth development. A scale of 4 points was used.
The developmental experiences we assessed were more positive then the negatives one. The dimension of Initiative (M=3.5) and Setting goals skills (M=3.22) is where student-athlete score the most. One of our main findings was a significant differences athletes involved with individual sports and those who participate in a team sport. Generally speaking, the first had a much more positive perception than the latter, which is different then most study on similar subject.
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Evans, M. B., Allan, V., Erickson, K., Martin, L. J., Budziszewski, R., & Côté, J. (2016). Are all sport activities equal ? A systematic review of how youth psychosocial experiences vary across differing sport activities, (1), 1‑9.
Holt, N. L., & Neely, K. C. (2011). Positive Youth Development Through Sport: a Review. Revista Iberoamericana de Psicología del Ejercicio y el Deporte, 6(2), 299‑316.
• Innovative perspectives on physical education, physical activity, health and wellbeing a
