Defining a research agenda for youth sport specialisation in the USA: the AMSSM Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit

Sport specialisation is becoming increasingly common among youth and adolescent athletes in the USA and many have raised concern about this trend. Although research on sport specialisation has grown significantly, numerous pressing questions remain pertaining to short-term and long-term effects of s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of sports medicine 2021-02, Vol.55 (3), p.135-143
Main Authors: Kliethermes, Stephanie A, Marshall, Stephen W, LaBella, Cynthia R, Watson, Andrew M, Brenner, Joel S, Nagle, Kyle B, Jayanthi, Neeru, Brooks, M Alison, Tenforde, Adam S, Herman, Daniel C, DiFiori, John P, Beutler, Anthony I
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adolescent
Age
Age Factors
Athletes
Athletic Injuries - etiology
Athletic Performance
Biomedical Research
Child
children
Children & youth
Consensus statement
Health care
Humans
Medicine
Participation
Periodicals as Topic
Public health
Research methodology
Risk Factors
Specialization
sports
Sports injuries
Sports Medicine
Teenagers
Training
United States
Writing
Youth Sports - trends
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Summary:Sport specialisation is becoming increasingly common among youth and adolescent athletes in the USA and many have raised concern about this trend. Although research on sport specialisation has grown significantly, numerous pressing questions remain pertaining to short-term and long-term effects of specialisation on the health and well-being of youth, including the increased risk of overuse injury and burnout. Many current elite athletes did not specialise at an early age. Methodological and study design limitations impact the quality of current literature, and researchers need to prioritise pressing research questions to promote safe and healthy youth sport participation. The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine hosted a Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit in April 2019 with the goal of synthesising and reviewing current scientific knowledge and developing a research agenda to guide future research in the field based on the identified gaps in knowledge. This statement provides a broad summary of the existing literature, gaps and limitations in current evidence and identifies key research priorities to help guide researchers conducting research on youth sport specialisation. Our goals are to help improve the quality and relevance of research on youth sport specialisation and to ultimately assure that opportunities for healthy and safe sport participation continue for all youth.
ISSN:0306-3674
1473-0480
DOI:10.1136/bjsports-2020-102699