Healthy Entourages throughout Athletic Careers

Research project description

This project, proposed as a continuation of the Healthy Dual Careers in Sport (HEDUCA) project, includes a contextual and longitudinal approach as key elements.

The proposal is framed within the Dual Career Development Environments (Henriksen et al., 2020) and the Holistic Athletic Career models (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004; Wylleman, 2019), and as an oriented-research project, it responds explicitly to the topic priority of health.

HENAC presents a research and work team of Spanish specialists in career management and sports transitions to ensure an update of knowledge and the education of professionals in high-performance sports environments to prevent and improve the mental health of athletes within the environments.

HENAC proposes four research objectives. The first is aimed at evaluating the resources and needs of both public and private high-performance sports environments; the second focuses on longitudinally evaluating the careers of athletes involved in high performance environments and analyzes both cases of athletes who have continued their sports careers and those who abandoned or were deselected; Finally, the fourth focuses on longitudinally analyzing the professionalization of women in sport both in the role of athletes as well as coaches and referees.

The different objectives are approached with methodologies that include mixed methods (Objective 1 and 2 combining longitudinal and multilevel quantitative analysis and qualitative thematic analysis) and qualitative methods (i.e., Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4 incorporating descriptive thematic analysis, interpretative and phenomenological thematic analysis, conversational analysis and narrative analysis).

Similarly, to ensure the applicability of the knowledge generated to the target population, Objective 1 is based on co-production principles (Smith et al., 2022). In addition to several international open-access scientific publications and presentations at national and international congresses, the proposal will result in the dissemination of products based on creative non-fiction such as animation videos, comics and testimonials (Cavallerio, 2022).

This approach will enhance the transfer of scientific knowledge to society in general and, more specifically, to athletes and their environments. These scientific and divulgation advances will benefit the quality of life, well-being and mental health of athletes who develop in high performance sports environments and the support of professionals and social agents in sports and private environments. 

Academic background / Skills

Candidates must hold a degree that allows admission to the official doctoral programme at UAB.  

Additional requirements for a stronger application are: 

Requirements: 

• Degree and master’s degree in psychology and/or sport sciences 
• Previous experience in research projects (quantitative and qualitative) in the field of sports psychology and/or sports sciences 

Skills: 

• Knowledge of English will be assessed. 
• Office tools and quantitative and qualitative data analysis  

Research group/s description

The Research Group in Social Sciences in Sport was born in 2020 from the new Sports Research Institute (IRE) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The IRE presents as part of its founding objectives, that of “Strengthening competitive and excellent interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, always aimed at identifying future trends and solving society’s needs and challenges.” As a response to this objective, this GRECSE brings together figures and lines of research that already exist and creates new ones with a multidisciplinary group of 21 people who have a conception of sport as a transversal area in society that acts from individual, as a tool for psychosocial development, but which has effects up to the global context, as a tool for regional and national representation and promoting the development of society. 

The GRECSE is coordinated by Dr. Yago Ramis and structured in 4 different research lines: 

a) Integral communication in Sport. Principal investigator. Dr. Anna Tous. 

b) Education and social transformation in Sport. Coordinator: Dr. Maria Prat. 

c) Sports Psychology and physical activity. Coordinator:  Dr. Miquel Torregrossa 

d) Olympic studies. Coordinator: Dr. Emilo Fernandez-Peña 

The HENAC Project is embedded in the sports psychology and physical activity line of research.