Charting the dual career journey: insights from adolescent athletes in lower secondary sport schools

A dual career (DC) involves the integration of a sport career with education or employment, including various stages and transitions. Recently, there has been a notable trend of implementing DC programs within specialized sport schools for early adolescence athletes (ages 13–15). As this a crucial but understudied phase of the DC, the aim of this study was to identify current and projected resources and barriers associated with adolescent athletes’ DC in lower secondary school. As part of a larger three-year initiative, the Finnish Lower Secondary Sports Schools Pilot Project, sixteen (9 females and 7 males) adolescent DC athletes were interviewed twice in the eighth grade (Mage = 14.4 years) and one year later in the ninth grade. Using the holistic athletic career model and push, pull, anti-push, anti-pull framework and a directed content analysis, the results revealed a range of immediate personal and environmental resources and barriers across athletic, academic, psychological, psychosocial and financial dimensions. They also suggested that interpersonal and institutional support were regarded as crucial assets for managing current challenges, while personal DC competencies, in particular, were emphasized as essential projected resources contributing to the sustainability of a DC in the future. Based on the findings, sports schools should increase the amount of hours dedicated to teaching DC competencies (e.g. emotional awareness, adaptability and social intelligence) to help athletes effectively cope with barriers and transitions. Additionally, flexible scheduling of teaching and training sessions could facilitate a better balance during demanding training periods