Exploring the behavioral indicators of resilience in professional academy youth soccer
Creators: name: Ashdown, Ben
name: Sarkar, Mustafa
name: Saward, Chris
name: Johnston, Julie
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Marine Biology
subject: Science Policy

description: The capacity to demonstrate resilience is important for performance and development outcomes in youth soccer. A key feature of resilience is the demonstration of positive behavioral responses to pressures or setbacks, yet little research exists on the specific behaviors that characterize resilience in the youth soccer literature. This study aimed to explore the behavioral indicators of resilience through focus groups and interviews with 60 participants from six professional soccer academies and one National Soccer Governing Body. The data was collected in two phases, the first involved a discussion of the observable behaviors associated with resilience in youth soccer. In the second phase, participants reflected on examples of resilience behaviors alongside video clips. These acted as a stimulus to contextualize the behaviors arising from the first phase. Content analysis was used to analyze the data and 36 behaviors were identified across six themes: (a) teammate support-focused (e.g., verbal support following mistakes), (b) emotion-focused (e.g., displaying emotional regulation), (c) effort-focused (e.g., physical efforts to overcome challenge), (d) rebound (e.g., positive reactions to a mistake), (e) robust (e.g., showing composure when under pressure), and (f) learning-focused (e.g., willingness to accept feedback). The results offer an insight into a multifaceted range of resilience behaviors in the context of youth soccer. With this knowledge, practitioners can make informed decisions around player development by assessing specific behavioral metrics related to resilience, players can engage in structured self-reflection practices pertaining to resilience development, and researchers can work toward the development of validated observational tools for resilience assessment. This study offers insight into the observable behaviors characterizing resilience in youth soccer. Participants identified 36 resilience behaviors, highlighting the multifaceted nature of the concept in this specific context. The results provide a platform to support practitioners in observing resilience behaviors and structuring practices for resilience assessment and development. The findings of this study can support youth soccer players in reflecting on their behavioral responses to in-game stressors, and thus better understand how and when they demonstrate resilience.Given the multifaceted nature of resilience behaviors highlighted in this study, practitioners in youth soccer settings may target specific themes for resilience development or use these to inform long-term curricular approaches.The findings can underpin the development of formalized observation instruments to support resilience behavior assessment and tracking. The findings of this study can support youth soccer players in reflecting on their behavioral responses to in-game stressors, and thus better understand how and when they demonstrate resilience. Given the multifaceted nature of resilience behaviors highlighted in this study, practitioners in youth soccer settings may target specific themes for resilience development or use these to inform long-term curricular approaches. The findings can underpin the development of formalized observation instruments to support resilience behavior assessment and tracking.