'A grounded theory of personal development in high-performance sport environments' - Jørgensen, Mosewich, McHugh & Holt (2024)
In short: Personal development is a continual and individualised process and can be promoted within sport through the use of self-evaluation, goal setting, reflections and social support.
More detail: The purpose of this research paper was to produce a grounded theory of how to promote personal development within high-performance sport environments. The research focuses on Canadian junior and senior biathlon teams across athletes, coaches and parents. The research was gathered through interviews and the findings used to create a theory to demonstrate how best an environment can be constructed to enabled effective personal development. The results of the study demonstrated three key propositions to personally develop those within sport.
Firstly, athletes will benefit from the use of realistic self-evaluation and goal setting to promote personal development. Secondly, athletes experience different situations and therefore their reflections are important to process and understand the impacts of these experiences upon their personal development. Finally, athletes will perceive, and receive, different social support which can benefit their personal development.
The use of appropriate social support will benefit an athletes personal development. Ultimately, the research reports personal development as being a continual and individualised process. Athletes who engage in realistic evaluation and goal setting whilst experiencing different situations and engage in reflections are likely to experience the highest personal development from being involved in sport.
Find it here:
Jørgensen, H., Mosewich, A. D., McHugh, T. L. F., & Holt, N. L. (2024). A grounded theory of personal development in high-performance sport environments. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 71.
