Understanding youth athletes' life designing processes through dream day narratives

Abstract

A number of studies have investigated career pathways in elite sport with retrospective designs, but few studies have explored how youth elite athletes construct narratives about their future lives and how their dreams and hopes relate to their careers in sport and other life contexts. We drew on career construction theory to understand youth elite athletes' dreams for the future and prominent life themes. Seventeen Finnish youth elite athletes (7 men, 10 women) in the first year of upper secondary sport school participated in the study. They were asked to make visual representations of their “dream days”, and these were used as aids for reflection in low-structured interviews where participants were invited to tell a story about the best possible day sometime in the future. The data were analysed using thematic and structural narrative analysis. We identified three types of dream days: a day on holiday, focused on relaxation, having a good time with friends, and recreational activities; a day of peak athletic performance describing winning a major competition; and a regular day involving school or work, athletic training and time with family. We concluded that the short future timespan and a low number of sporting dream days might indicate overload and lack of time for reflection. The implications for career interventions with talented adolescents are discussed.