Critical Issues in the Process of the Career Development and Transition of Athletes

Competitive sports are full of pressure and pose great challenges to athletes. Alongside athletes' career development in sports, long-term intensive training and frequent competitions significantly increase the incidence of sports-related injuries and boost the development of burnout symptoms, which may further undermine athletes’ mental well-being. Meanwhile, various challenges and problems, such as social and interpersonal issues, difficulties in psychological adaptation, failure in securing a contract, and suffering from mental illness, are prominent throughout their career development and transition. Previous research has extensively explored the factors that may influence the abovementioned critical issues, including but not limited to coach leadership/behaviors, athlete-coach relationships, social support from important others, training intensity, and involvement in career planning programs. However, to date, athlete career development and transition has yet to receive much attention on its underpinning psycho-social-behavioral mechanisms or processes, development and validation of appropriate psychometrics to assess and tackle critical issues in the domain, neither the establishment, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based intervention strategies, policies, and practices.

This Research Topic, therefore, calls for increasing attention on the aforementioned critical issues throughout athletes’ career development in sports and transition out of sports. We also call for research addressing varied risks, barriers, and drivers in athletes’ career development and transition, intending to shed light on assessment, interpersonal interactions, social and institutional contextual factors that are related to these critical issues. Overall, this research collection aims to bring novel insights into theoretical advancement in the psychology of athletes’ career development and transition and to inform future practices and establishment of intervention and education programs.

Original research on topics including, but not limited to the below list, are welcomed:

- Quality of life and wellbeing
- Burnout symptoms and their development
- Mental health promotion
- Mental illness prevention
- Psychological distress and mental strain
- Career development
- Career transition
- Career adaptability
- Personality and individual differences
- Psychometric and measurement issues
- Cross-cultural perspectives

We encourage researchers to send manuscripts of their work (e.g., empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical/methodological articles, case studies using either quantitative/qualitative approaches) to be considered for publication in this Research Topic.