Psychosocial factors association with health and well-being in youth soccer

Abstract: Participating in organized sport has, according to previous research, been proven to have several benefits concerning health and well-being. Psychosocial factors such as task/ego- orientation, support from coaches and significant others has been shown to affect well-being in sport-environments. Present study was set out to investigate whether unique subgroups within soccer players (N = 732) could be found based on psychosocial factors, and if any difference between these subgroups could be found regarding well-being using a cross sectional design in four different districts around Sweden. LCA-analyses was carried out to identify the subgroups within the sample. The analyses identified four subgroups (“classes”) and the main findings showed that players who felt support from coaches and significant others and were in environments which were more task and mastery-oriented had higher general well-being. Present study confirmed previous research findings that support and environmental factors (e.g., task/ego-orientation, mastery/ego-goals) affect players well- being.