More than a footballer: developing a self-assessment tool for evaluating holistic development programming features for elite youth footballers
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Abstract
Much work is being done to optimize the developmental environments responsible for nurturing their physical, technical, tactical, and psychological growth. However, recent empirical evidence suggests that the academies housing youth fall short of their holistic development aspirations, and are failing to prepare many youth for the challenges of pursuing a career in professional football. For example, research has shown that some youth are experiencing psychological distress, inferior academic outcomes, academic disengagement, foreclosed identities, and impaired social and emotional development (Blakelock, Chen, & Prescott, 2016; Brown & Potrac, 2009; Gouttebar, Aoki, & Kerkhoffs, 2016; Platts, 2012). This dissertation explores the goals of current developmental programming within elite youth football development environments, the experience of the elite youth footballers enrolled in these environments, and subsequently, offers an assessment tool that permits professional football academies to evaluate the extent to which they integrate programming that promotes holistic, positive youth development. It is hoped that engagement in this self-assessment will provide a foundation for professional football academies to engage in dialogue as to programming features that can be modified and/or introduced to promote optimal performance, psychological and emotional well-being, and future-readiness concurrently. Put more simply, this research is interested in optimizing the developmental environments of elite youth footballers in order to foster key attributes that enable them to navigate the inevitable performance, life, and career challenges that await them both within and beyond their experience in academy and/or professional football. This dissertation consists of 3 distinct, but interrelated components. Initial attention will be focused on the mission statements of the organizations (i.e., Premier League, English Football League, League Football Education) and individual clubs (i.e., academies) responsible for the development of elite youth footballers in England. Qualitative analysis of these statements will provide insight into the aspirations of these organizations (i.e., their developmental goals). Focus will then shift to elucidating the experiences of former professional academy youth, and their perceptions of academy programming. At this stage, exploring and understanding the lived experiences of individuals who have progressed through the system is of paramount importance. Thus, interviews with former elite youth footballers were conducted and analyzed. Within these interviews, participants will also be invited to comment on how developmental programming can be optimized. That is, participants were asked to offer recommendations on how developmental environments can better meet the holistic needs of this population. The next stage involved the author leveraging the conclusions and recommendations drawn from this analysis with the current evidence base on positive youth development practices to construct a self-assessment tool for professional football academies. This tool will function to evaluate the extent to which academy programming promotes holistic/positive youth development (i.e., psychological, educational, and vocational well-being within and beyond their time in the academy system). Finally, individuals with experience within professional academies evaluated the utility of the proposed self-assessment tool.