Mind the gap: Environmental influences on player psychosocial needs and development in an elite youth football academy

Abstract

The Premier League football academy environment plays a significant role in shaping the psychosocial needs and development of youth footballers. The first author conducted a qualitative case study within a category one academy over nine-months using multiple methods (observation, field notes, interviews, focus groups, and document analysis). The holistic ecological approach (HEA) was used as a framework to capture the complexity of academy life. Analysis revealed a disparity between the awareness of the importance of psychosocial skills within the environment and the approach to embedding and prioritising their development. Environmental factors at both a micro and macro level resulted in an intention-action gap which inhibited psychosocial skill development. From the results of this study we suggest that sport psychology practitioners (SPPP) should incorporate environmental level factors in their work to better facilitate players’ psychosocial development.