Optimising Youth Wellbeing, Learning, and Elite Development in Dual Career Environments (WeLive DC)
Main funder
Funder's project number: OKM/39/626/2017
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 380 000,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/04/2018
Project end date: 31/03/2023
Summary
This project responds to European Union initiatives for safeguarding the development of young talented sportsmen and sportswomen (EU 2007, 2008, 2012), validating non-formal and informal learning (EU 2015), and is aligned with 2015 Exercise Act passed by the Finnish Government to promote a socially responsible development of high achievement sports. Despite increasing structural efforts to ensure ethical and sustainable development of sport at all levels in Europe, research literature indicates that young talented athletes often find it challenging to simultaneously engage in athletic and academic/vocational training, and many of them compromise educational accomplishments in an attempt to mobilize their elite career development. While most young athletes are immersed in dual career environments that provide them with supporting services, they often lack formal training and/or work experience which would facilitate their life design and exploration of the future in the transition to the labor market during or after their athletic careers. As societal values for elite sport are declining among Finnish youth (LIITU 2016), it seems to be particularly important to examine the effectiveness of high-performance training centers in supporting youth positive development, wellbeing and lifelong learning, as well as to develop a guiding framework for educational institutions to recognize and credit non-formal and informal learning experiences of athletes. The proposed action will result in a more holistic and dynamic understanding of how young people construct their lives in and through sport and the role of dual career environments in elite development and lifelong learning.
Principal Investigator
Other persons related to this project (JYU)
Primary responsible unit
Fields of science
Follow-up groups
- Behaviour change, health, and well-being across the lifespan (University of Jyväskylä JYU) BC-Well
- Multidisciplinary research on learning and teaching (University of Jyväskylä JYU) MultiLeTe
- School of Wellbeing (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Well
- Teacher education research (teaching, learning, teacher, learning paths, education) (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Edu; Formerly JYU.Ope
Profiling area: Behaviour change, health, and well-being across the lifespan (University of Jyväskylä JYU) BC-Well; Multidisciplinary research on learning and teaching (University of Jyväskylä JYU) MultiLeTe; School of Wellbeing (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Well
Keywords (YSO)
Free keywords
dual career, informal learning, youth wellbeing, life design, dual career development environment
Related publications and other outputs
- Coaching generation Z : A response to Gould et al from a critical cultural perspective (2024) McDougall, Michael; et al.; A1
- Beyond life-skills : talented athletes, existential learning and (Un)learning the life of an athlete (2023) Ronkainen, Noora; et al.; A1; OA
- Student Athletes’ Causal Attributions for Sport and School Achievement in Relation to Sport Dropout and Grade Point Average (2023) Saarinen, Milla; et al.; A1; OA
- The future-oriented hopes and goals of adolescent student-athletes in Finnish sport high schools (2023) Sääksi, Pauliina; et al.; A1; OA
- The role of career adaptability resources in dual career pathways : A person-oriented longitudinal study across elite sports upper secondary school (2023) Ojala, Juulia; et al.; A1; OA
- The role of gender and coaching styles in adolescent student-athletes’ motivational orientations in sport and school (2023) Saarinen, Milla; et al.; A1; OA
- “Women easily feel that they have lost a year if they don’t ski faster” : Finnish ski coaches’ discursive constructions of gendered dual career pathways (2023) Saarinen, Milla; et al.; A1; OA
- Associations Between Student‐Athletes’ Self‐Esteem and Career Adaptability Across the High School Years (2022) Nikander, Jaakko A.O.; et al.; A1; OA
- Developing mixed methods research in sport and exercise psychology : potential contributions of a critical realist perspective (2022) Ryba, Tatiana V.; et al.; A1; OA
- From athletic talent development to dual career development? : A case study in a Finnish high performance sports environment (2022) Nikander, Aku.; et al.; A1; OA
