Dual career of junior athletes: Identifying challenges, available resources, and roles of social support providers

Abstract

Balancing between two different commitments, sport and education, has been demonstrated as one of the significant challenges for dual career athletes, namely student athletes. Since EU guidelines on dual careers of athletes was published, a number of studies have been conducted on the topic of dual careers. One of the Erasmus+ Sport projects, Dual Career for Junior Athletes (DCJA), has been designed to identify three main aspects regarding the dual career of junior athletes, aged between 15 and 19-year-old: the barriers and challenges , resources and skills, and the roles and views of the support staff of the student-athletes. Applying a twofold methodology based on the literature and the EU funded projects reviews, the findings show that there is a clear need of further research on the topic of dual career focused on the junior athletes' needs, coping strategies development, and general aspects of their life. The findings in this study will inform following studies of DCJA project to fill the research gaps identified.