Daniel Brown

• Ph.D.
• Lecturer at University of Portsmouth

We present two confessional tales of our transnational experience as U.K.-based trainee sport psychology practitioners working in a professional sport organization in Trinidad and Tobago. We first provide contextual elements of our placement before sharing the confessional tales regarding the nuances of providing sport psychology services in a cult...

To support the growing calls to safeguard athlete health and well-being in the pursuit of sporting success, empirical research into thriving may offer practitioners potential mechanisms to promote both outcomes simultaneously. Yet, given that elite sport environments are increasingly characterized as complex and volatile, apply-ing theoretical know...

The service delivery and philosophy of sport psychology practitioners is highly influenced by their life experiences, values, and personal beliefs. Nevertheless, accounts of such influences are limited within the professional development literature. In this article, the first author provides an analysis of how her experiences as a transnational fem...

The number of elite athletes from the United Kingdom choosing to migrate to the United States is increasing. Grounded in the push–pull framework, this was the first study to exclusively explore the motivations and experiences of elite British female gymnasts who migrated to American universities and competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Asso...

Background: Although kidney transplantation is the best treatment for kidney failure, scarce research has examined its effects on physical activity, physical function and quality of life. Objectives: To investigate the experiences of a group of adults living with advanced kidney disease focusing on quality of life, physical activity and function...

Objectives The aims of this study were to explore the features of the athletic environment that influence thriving within a British Olympic and Paralympic sport organisation and to understand the interconnectedness of these factors across a range of individuals and contexts. These aims were pursued within a decentralised organisation that was under...

Discrimination and inequality are ever present in today's society, with athletes facing racial abuse and LGBTQ+ individuals fearing for their safety at international events. Due to these additional stressors, the role of sport psychologists becomes increasingly important when supporting athletes from minority groups. An online questionnaire was dev...

Background: When people with chronic kidney disease reach kidney failure, renal replacement therapy is usually required to improve symptoms and maintain life. Although in-centre haemodialysis is most commonly used for this purpose, other forms of dialysis are available, including home haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Objectives: We aimed t...

Coach need supportive behaviors are associated with positive effects on players’ well-being and performance, with opposing effects known to exist for need controlling behaviors. Yet, little is understood about how the strategies are used in terms of their frequency and interchangeability. To explore these nuances and dynamics the present qualitativ...

Background: High-pressured situations, coupled with diminished resource allocations and over-worked staff have been characteristic of surgery for a long time before the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the cause and effects of fatigue in the profession are warranted to design evidence-based and effective interventions for fatigue mitigation. By ide...

The aim of this research was to examine whether attachment relationships to significant others, such as to parents and/or sports coaches, enable thriving and competition performance within sport. Two studies employing cross-sectional and prospective designs were carried out across different samples of athletes of varied skill levels and sports. In...

Objectives To examine (i) whether levels of, and changes in, athletes’ basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) and challenge appraisals predicted in-match thriving; and (ii) if salivary biomarkers could be defined that were related to thriving. Design Prospective study design. Methods Fifty-one elite male hockey players (Mage = 24.94 years,...

Early in the coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) containment strategy, people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were identified as extremely clinically vulnerable and subsequently asked to ‘shield’ at home where possible. The aim of this study was to investigate how these restrictions and the transition to an increased reliance on telemedicine within cli...

Purpose: Performance optimisation, through psychological states such as thriving is important in high-performance industries such as surgery. Recognising meaning, and influencers of thriving states in surgery, with parallels to other high-performance industries advances understanding of the impact of personal and professional demands on the perform...

To sustain success in sport, athletes need to function effectively in their competitive encounters and maintain this level over repeated events. Yet, to date, little is known about how athletes can continue to fully function (i.e., thrive) in their sporting encounters. Equally, there is a lack of research in relation to the factors that predict thr...

Since the mid-1990s the constructs of growth, resilience, and thriving have often been conflated and the labels used interchangeably to describe similar experiences. As research literature has grown, separate bodies of work have emerged on each of the constructs giving rise to questions of a jangle fallacy. The purpose of this chapter is to synthes...

The identification and development of players in English professional football has become an increasingly significant topic of debate given the historical perceived underperformance of the English national team at international tournaments. To enhance understanding of the challenges and barriers experienced by English youth footballers, the authors...

Objectives: The desire and apparent ‘need’ to succeed can drive a win-at-all-costs mentality in individuals who operate in sport. This approach has given rise to environments where the pursuit of high-level performance has been at the expense of athlete welfare. To redress this balance and to inform the creation and maintenance of sporting environm...

Although considerable research exists on performers' responses to sporting encounters, little is known about thriving in sport contexts. The current study examined if distinct response patterns existed between sport performers who thrived in competitive encounters compared with those who did not. Participants were 535 sport performers (134 women; M...

Athletes are often described as thriving in sport; however, extant research on this construct in sport has been divergent. This study aimed to provide the first dedicated exploration of thriving in elite sport performers by considering its characteristics, outcomes, and facilitators. Semi-structured interviews (n = 15) were conducted with athletes,...

Individual differences in the growth and maturation have been shown to impact player performance and development in youth soccer. This study investigated Premier League academy players’ experiences of participating in a tournament bio-banded for biological maturation. Players (N = 66) from four professional soccer clubs aged 11 and 14 years and bet...

Background Psychologists are increasingly supporting the quest for performance enhancement in sport and there is a need to evaluate the evidence base underpinning their work. Objectives To synthesize the most rigorous available research that has evaluated psychological, social, and psychosocial interventions with sport performers on variables relat...

Human beings have an inherent drive for self-improvement and growth (Maslow, 1965; Ryan & Deci, 2002). In a quest to understand how human beings achieve fulfillment, researchers have sought to explain why some individuals thrive in certain situations, whereas others merely survive or succumb. The topic of thriving has become popular with scholars,...

Objectives: Recent research suggests that experiencing some adversity can have beneficial outcomes for human growth and development. The purpose of this paper was to explore the adversities that the world's best athletes encounter and the perceived role that these experiences play in their psychological and performance development. Design: A qualit...