The reliability and validity of the sport engagement instrument in the Finnish dual career context
Although engagement is key to predicting burnout and dropout, few existing instruments measure this phenomenon in the sports context. As part of a larger three-year Lower Secondary Sports Schools Pilot Project (LSSSPP) in Finland, we conducted two studies as part of the present research with the major aims of (a) constructing the Sport Engagement Instrument (SpEI) and (b) validating the new instrument in the Finnish dual career context. In the preparatory study, an expert panel constructed the SpEI, a questionnaire comprising 37 items intended to measure cognitive and affective sports engagement. The main study utilised questionnaire data collected from two independent samples (n1 = 992 and…
Toward adjustment profiles for lower secondary student-athletes in the Finnish dual career context: A mixed-methods approach
Engagement, burnout, and experiences are central concepts for understanding student-athlete adjustment in a dual career (DC) environment. As part of a larger 3-year, lower secondary sports schools pilot project, the aim of this study was to examine student-athletes’ DC adjustment in Finnish lower secondary sports schools at the end of the second academic year. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, we sought to (a) identify adjustment profiles among student-athletes based on measures of engagement and burnout in school and sport and (b) to extract experiences that describe the distribution of student-athletes in the profiles. A latent profile analysis using questionnaire data fr…