Impact of Early Sport Specialization on College Student Athletes

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.