Youth sport specialization: a multidisciplinary scoping systematic review

ABSTRACT

Despite continued interest in youth sport participation, the consensus among researchers is that a thorough understanding of the phenomenon of youth sport specialization is still lacking. The popular and scholarly narratives regarding sport specialization challenge the adaptive nature of this practice. However, the lack of synthesis of youth sport specialization research makes existing practical recommendations potentially tenuous. This scoping review utilized a multidisciplinary lens to survey and integrate the full spectrum of youth sport specialization research by summarizing empirical findings and examining the characteristics of empirical research (e.g., field of publication, participant role, study design). Multiple databases were utilized to span the various disciplines in which sport specialization has been studied. The systematic review protocol yielded 906 publications for screening. After analysis of these records through inclusion/exclusion criteria, 40 empirical research publications examining youth sport specialization were included in this review. Analysis of these empirical findings indicated two higher-order emerging themes of this research: 1) Sport specialization participation behaviours; 2) Sport specialization outcomes. Descriptive results of the research characteristics are also explored. This review examined key findings that underlie recommendations for structuring youth sport participation, and highlighted future research avenues vital towards a more holistic understanding of this phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport participation
• early specialization
• talent development
• positive youth development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.