Impact of Early Sport Specialization on College Student Athletes

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Persistent link to this item

Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Impact of Early Sport Specialization on College Student Athletes

Published Date

2018-05

Publisher

Type

Scholarly Text or Essay

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine what impact, if any, early sport specialization in youth has on rate of overuse injury, burnout, and distribution of athletic scholarship dollars in NCAA Division II athletes at a mid-sized, northern Minnesota public University. Male and female student-athletes (n=l41) ranging in age from first-year freshmen to graduate level status took part in the project, with a majority (90.8%) classified as White/Caucasian, or Non-Hispanic. A 14-question online survey was distributed via Qualtrics, which classified participants as moderate or strict sport specialists, and information was gathered regarding frequency of overuse injury, development of burnout, and scholarship funding. When applying the strict definition of sport specialization scholarship funding dramatically increased. Specifically, while only 18 of 84 athletes ( or 21.4%) who were identified as moderate-specialists received scholarship dollars, 39 of 57 athletes (or 68.4%) who were identified as strict-specialists received athletic scholarship funding. Young athletes are encouraged to participate in multiple competitive activities to avoid both overuse injury and burnout, but the results of this research were not statistically significant and further studies should be explored to support these conclusions.

Description

Capstone Project, Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Master of Education Degree in the College of Education and Human Service Professions, May 2018. This item has been modified from the original to redact the signatures present.

Related to

Replaces

License

Series/Report Number

Funding information

University of Minnesota, Duluth. College of Education and Human Service Professions.

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Suggested citation

Hockett, Matthew P. (2018). Impact of Early Sport Specialization on College Student Athletes. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/200481.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.