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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1453817

Exploring mental functions utilised by male youth team-based ballsport athletes within academy programs: a systematic review and meta-aggregation

Provisionally accepted
Joshua Whitty Joshua Whitty *Bon Gray Bon Gray Nikki Milne Nikki Milne
  • Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The rise of youth sport academies has led to a focus on long-term athletic development, and exploration into holistic approaches that incorporate psychological attributes to form biopsychosocial frameworks. The primary aim of this systematic review was to profile the psychological attributes of male youth team-based ball-sport athletes in academy-based programs and explore interactions between psychological attributes and athlete participation through the biopsychosocial model, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework. This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Six databases; PubMed, SPORTdiscus, Proquest, PsychINFO, Embase and Scopus were searched for relevant publications from root to 14th March 2024.The search returned 3306 records, and after applying the eligibility criteria 51 studies were included at full text and were critically appraised utilising the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Data synthesis revealed 178 mental functions measured across 12 ICF categories, via 66 psychometric tools. Metaaggregation revealed mean scores for 34 mental functions across eight ICF categories and 12 subcategories.Male youth team-based ball-sport academy athletes display high levels of orientation to self and high energy levels; moderate to high levels of motivation and self-regulation; moderate levels of psychosocial functions, conscientiousness, regulation of emotion, and organising and planning. Low levels of clinical indicators and burnout were observed. The ICF framework can be utilised as a biopsychosocial framework for sport practitioners looking to profile the multidimensional and complex attributes of team-based ball-sport youth athletes in academy programs.

    Keywords: Youth, Sports, psychological, development, Mental functions

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 02 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Whitty, Gray and Milne. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Joshua Whitty, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.