The Selection of Sports Schools: The Influence of the Environment on the Development of Youth Athletes' Career Adaptability

ABSTRACT There are many routes to achieving an elite status in sports, which can be described as a journey that involves many developmental environments. In terms of navigating transitions and across environments, the adolescent years are particularly crucial, and psychosocial skills may assist youth athletes to maintain balance and wellbeing in combining sports and education. The aim of this study was to investigate the environmental differences in career adaptability profiles as students adapt to their sports high schools. A total of 391 student‐athletes (51% female, 49% male) from six sports high schools in Finland participated in the study. To compare the environments' features, we created a typology of the environments based on a document analysis methodology. Our quantitative analysis builds upon the findings of the first author, who applied latent profile analysis (LPA) to career adaptability measures across the first year of sports high school. To investigate whether student‐athletes have a higher probability of belonging to a profile in certain sports high schools, we used multinomial regression analysis. The results showed that the most sports‐focused and centralized environment did not support career adaptability development to the same extent as other environments. Furthermore, we found that student‐athletes in the “highly successful” environment had the highest probability of belonging to the high or increased career adaptability profile, despite reporting the highest number of sports training hours and high academic success. This study demonstrates the importance of the locality and the authenticity of the environments and of how their features support student‐athletes' career adaptability development.