David Fletcher

• PhD MSc BSc(Hons) CPsychol FAASP AFBPS FHEA
• Professor at Loughborough University

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...

Drawing on the body of knowledge in this area, this article presents an evidence-based approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success. To this end, the narrative is divided into three main sections. The first section describes the construct of psychological resilience and explains what it is. The second section outlines and d...

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,...

Research points to the notion that athletes have the potential to benefit from difficulty. This phenomenon—otherwise known as growth following adversity—has attracted increasing attention from sport psychology scholars. In this paper, we systematically review and synthesize the findings of studies in this area to better understand: (a) how growth h...

Background and objectives: Recent research has shown that lifetime stressor exposure can negatively impact sport performers. However, this work has predominantly relied on quantitative methods, which has provided limited information regarding how stressors occurring over the life course affect health, well-being, and performance. This study aimed...

Greater lifetime stressor exposure has been related to negative health outcomes (e.g., depression, cardiovascular disease). However, the relationship between lifetime stressor exposure and sporting performance is less clear. Furthermore, while the prevalence of mental health issues among elite athletes has been relatively well established, it appea...

Although greater lifetime stressor exposure has been associated with physical and mental health issues in the general population, relatively little is known about how lifetime stressors impact the physical and mental health of elite athletes or the factors moderating this association. Given that many elite athletes show signs of perfectionism, and...

This study addressed whether lifetime stressor exposure was associated with psychophysiological reactivity and habituation to a novel laboratory-based stressor. Eighty-six participants ( M age = 23.31 years, SD = 4.94) reported their exposure to lifetime non-sport and sport-specific stressors before completing two consecutive trials of the Trier So...

Research has found that greater lifetime stressor exposure increases the risk for mental and physical health problems. Despite this, few studies have examined how stressors occurring over the entire lifespan affect sport performers’ health, well-being, and performance, partly due to the difficulty of assessing lifetime stressor exposure. To address...

Although coaching is a co-created process, researchers investigating the psychological aspects of Olympic coaching have tended to overlook the perceptions of athletes and whether these distinguish between performance-related outcomes. The objective of this research was to examine whether athletes’ perceptions of their coaches discriminate between w...

Stress is an important consideration for understanding why individuals take part in limited or no physical activity. The negative effects of stress on physical activity do not hold for everyone, so examinations of possible resilience resources that might protect individuals from the harmful effects of stress are required. Accordingly, we conducted...

The purpose of this study is to identify and examine individuals’ experiences of and the outcomes of sport and education or vocational development, with the intention to establish an overarching theory of dual career (DC) pathways in sport. Since the contrasting experiences and outcomes of a DC are largely unguided by a theoretical model, the groun...

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,...

Research has previously identified different approaches to a dual career (i.e., the simultaneous development of a vocational career alongside the athletic career), (a) educational/vocational pathway (i.e., a prioritisation of the vocational career), (b) a parallel dual career pathway (i.e., an equal focus on athletic and vocational career), and (c)...

Objectives Researchers investigating the psychological aspects of Olympic coaching have studied coaches as a homogenous group, and the effect of coaches' psychological characteristics on performance-related outcomes remains unclear. The objective of this research, therefore, was to examine whether psychological factors discriminate between world-le...

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...

An increasing number of female soccer players are playing at the elite level. It is important to encourage these players to remain mindful of the benefits of carrying out a dual career (e.g., higher education and elite sport path). The current study provides an investigation of players’ dual career plans and the demands they encounter. The guiding...

Effective coaching facilitates athletes’ success in reaching their potential in sport. Coaches possess a range of knowledge, skills and attributes that influence athletes’ performance, including various intrapersonal and interpersonal qualities. The purpose of this study is to systematically review the research investigating the psychosocial functi...

Research suggests that elite athletes are at increased risk of poor mental health, partly due to the intense demands associated with top-level sport. Despite growing interest in the topic, the factors that influence the mental health and well-being of elite athletes remain unclear. From a theoretical perspective, the accumulation of stress and adve...

The importance of optimal well-being and mental health in elite athletes has received increasing attention and debate in both the academic and public discourse. Despite the number of challenges and risk factors for mental health and well-being recognised within the performance lifestyle of elite athletes, the evidence base for intervention is limit...

Adversities refer to events that are characterised by perceived or actual threat to human functioning. Often considered deleterious for health and well-being, recent work supports an alternative picture of the effects of adversity on human functioning, such that a moderate amount of adversity – when compared with none or high levels – can be benefi...

There has been an upward trend of student-athletes migrating to the US (United States) from the United Kingdom (UK). This study focused specifically on elite UK student-athletes’ motivations for migrating to the US and their perceptions of the transition on their athletic development. A qualitative research method was used to facilitate the develop...

Objectives To examine the longitudinal associations and differences between self-reported and device-assessed physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB), using a multifaceted statistical approach. Design Longitudinal measurement burst. Methods In total, 52 university students (78% female) aged 18 - 38 years (mean = 21.94 ± 4.57 years) pa...

This study examined the relationships between daily cognitive appraisals of organizational events, affective responses and coping. In addition, a five-year longitudinal relationship between coping and performance outcomes at the senior professional level was assessed. Using an experience sampling method, professional academy rugby union players (N...

Stress is an important consideration for understanding why individuals take part in limited or no physical activity (PA). The effects of stress on PA does not hold for everyone, so examinations of possible moderators that protect individuals from the harmful effects of stress are required. Aligned with a resilience framework, individual resources (...

In this study, the authors interviewed Olympic athletes about their perceptions of their leaders and managers, with a particular focus on perceptions of negatively valenced and socially undesirable characteristics and their effects. The results highlight five main dark characteristics: self-focused, haughty self-belief, inauthentic, manipulative, a...

Too high demands, combined with a lack of resources, are often detrimental to athletic health and well-being. However, a valid and reliable instrument to investigate different dimensions of demands and resources in sport is currently unavailable. Therefore, the present study examines the psychometric properties of an existing and well-validated sur...

Objectives: The purposes of this study were twofold: to conduct a mixed method organizational-level stress audit within a sport organization and to explore recommendations for organizational stress management. Design and Method: Semi-structured interviews, focus groups and surveys were conducted with 47 participants (professional sportsmen, coache...

This paper presents 2 studies examining the extent to which the frequency of encountered organizational stressors relates to burnout and whether qualities of psychological resilience moderate any such relationship. The studies were conducted with independent samples of athletes and coaches using a questionnaire design. In Study 1, 372 athletes comp...

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...

In this paper we review recent developments in team resilience research in elite sport. Although resilience has become a popular and well-researched topic from an individual (psychological) perspective, less attention has been paid to whether this construct is conceptually and operationally robust at a group level. In this review, we provide an ove...

It has been over 20 years since research has been published on perceptions of sport psychology services in Olympic sport, and this work spanned multiple sports, had a North American focus, and did not report management’s views. In this study, we resurrect this line of inquiry through the investigation of management and coaches’ perceptions of sport...

Drawing on Hardy et al.’s study as the target article, in this commentary, we focus on the adversity-related experiences and consequences of the Olympic and/or World champions that they sampled. With this in mind, we divide the narrative into two main sections. In the first section, we explore the association between adversity-related experiences a...

Organisational stressors are associated with positive and negative outcomes in extant literature; however, little is known about which demands predict which outcomes. Extant theory and literature also suggests that coping style may influence an individual's resilience or vulnerability to stressors and, subsequently, their psychological responses an...

This study investigated transactional pathways between organizational stressors and their underpinning situational properties, appraisals, coping, perceived coping effectiveness and performance satisfaction in athletes. Ten high-level field hockey players were interviewed. Data relating to stressors, situational properties, appraisals and coping we...

This multi-study paper reports the development and initial validation of an inventory for the Characteristics of Resilience in Sports Teams (CREST). In four related studies, 1225 athletes from Belgium and the United Kingdom were sampled. The first study provided content validity for an initial item set. The second study explored the factor structur...

Objectives We assessed the effects of a cognitive-behavioral intervention on English field hockey players’ appraisals of organizational stressors, emotions, and performance satisfaction. Design A concurrent, across-participants, multiple-baseline, single-case research design with a three months post-intervention follow-up. Method Four high-level fe...

This paper reports the first study to quantitatively examine the relationships between the demands encountered by athletes that are associated with the organization within which they are operating, cognitive appraisals, and basic psychological need experiences. Three hundred and fifteen high-level British athletes completed a multi-section question...

The general and sport psychology research converge to point to a complex relationship between depressive experiences and human performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the depressive experiences of top level athletes and the relationship of such experiences with sport performance. Twelve autobiographies of elite athletes representing e...

Previous research suggests that adversarial growth is a real and constructive phenomenon that occurs in athletes who compete at the highest level of sport. In this study, however, we adopt a critical stance on the veridicality of growth by exploring Olympic swimmers' experience of constructive and illusory growth. Semi-structured interviews, comple...

Organizational stressors are particularly prevalent across sport performers' experiences and can influence their performance, health, and well-being. Research has been conducted to identify which organizational stressors are encountered by sport performers, but little is known about how these experiences vary from athlete to athlete. The purpose of...

Previous performance environment research in sport has either focused on specific variables in relative isolation or a multitude of variables without theoretically linking them together. Using a case study approach, we explored the high performance environment (HPE) in an elite swimming team through the theoretical lens of the HPE model [Jones, J....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors perceived to be associated with the design and delivery of an effective Olympic Games preparation camp. Design/methodology/approach – To identify and explore such factors, interviews were conducted with eight members of a preparation camp delivery team for the London 2012 Olympic Ga...

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...

Extant sport psychology and sport management research has examined the factors influencing Olympic performance at the athletic and coaching, and governmental and policy levels respectively. In contrast to this abundance of literature, far less is known about the factors perceived to influence performance at the leadership and managerial level. The...

Abstract The Sport Emotion Questionnaire (SEQ) (Jones, M. V., Lane, A. M., Bray, S. R., Uphill, M., & Catlin, J. (2005). Development and validation of the SEQ. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 27, 407-431) was developed and initially validated to assess sport performers' pre-competitive emotions. The purpose of this study was to test the f...

Over the past few years, we have presented (e.g., Fletcher & Maher, 2011) and published (e.g., Fletcher & Maher, 2013) a call for the profession of applied sport psychology to create and sustain a culture of competence throughout the training and development of its practitioners. This work has roused some stimulating debate at conferences and via e...

This study investigated sport performers’ coping strategies in response to organizational stressors, examined the utility of Skinner, Edge, Altman, and Sherwood’s (2003) categorization of coping within a sport context, determined the short-term perceived effectiveness of the coping strategies used, and explored appraisal-coping associations. Thirte...

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must utilise and optimise a range of mental qualities to withstand the pressures that they experience. In this article, we discuss psychological resilience in sport performers via a review of the stressors athletes encounter and the protective factors that help them withstand these dem...

Although resilience has been referred to as "ordinary magic" (Masten, 2001, p. 227) that is more common than once thought, the majority of research in this area has sampled individuals who have been required to react to potentially traumatic events outside of their control. The findings of this work, however, are not easily applicable to those who...

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must constantly withstand a wide range of pressures to attain and sustain high performance. To advance psychologists’ understanding of this area, there exists an urgent need to develop a sport-specific measure of resilience. The purpose of this article is to review psychometric issues...

Objectives: This study aimed to improve the practice of individuals operating in a sport organization by providing an intervention to develop emotion abilities and strategies. Design: A two-phase action research approach was adopted to facilitate the objective and to assess the intervention's effectiveness. Method: In the first phase of the interve...

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to develop a definition of team resilience and to identify the resilient characteristics of elite sport teams. Design and method: Focus groups consisting of a total of 31 participants were conducted with five elite teams from a range of sports. An interpretive thematic analysis using inductive and deduc...

In this article, we discuss the notion of competence in applied sport psychology via the review of related literature on competence in professional psychology. With a view to synthesizing and transferring the work of the 2002 Competencies Conference to applied sport psychology, we focus on defining and understanding competence, delineating competen...

The series of related studies reported here describe the development and validation of the Organizational Stressor Indicator for Sport Performers (OSI-SP). In Study 1, an expert and usability panel examined the content validity and applicability of an initial item pool. The resultant 96 items were analyzed with exploratory factor analyses in Study...

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the variety of definitions, concepts, and theories of psychological resilience. To this end, the narrative is divided into three main sections. The first considers how resilience has been defined in the psychology research literature. Despite the construct being operationalized in a variety of way...

In this study, we explored the organizational stressors experienced by professional soccer coaches. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 first-team coaches who worked in the top 4 leagues of English soccer. Inductive content analysis revealed that stress was experienced in relation to 8 higher-order themes. Specifically, coaches identi...

This study investigated athletes' appraisals of organizational stressors. Four elite sport performers (two males and two females) completed Stress Appraisal Logs over a six-week competition period regarding the stressors they encountered within their sport organization. The participants predominantly appraised sources of organizational strain (i.e....

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature relating to the positive aspects of organizational psychology research in sport. To this end, the narrative is divided into three main sections. The first section defines and delimits relevant concepts, including organizational psychology, positive psychology and positive organizing. The second...

The purpose of this study was to elicit recommendations, advice and suggestions that can be used to enhance performance leadership and management in elite sport. To garner such information, 13 national performance directors were interviewed regarding the recommendations, advice and suggestions they had for leaders and managers of national sports te...

Abstract We explored sport performers' cognitive appraisals of organisational stressors. The relevant demands and transactional alternatives that athletes experience in relation to the situational properties were identified. Thirteen national standard swimmers completed semi-structured, interval-contingent daily diaries for a 28-day period. A combi...

In the study reported here, 12 sport performers (six elite and six non-elite) were interviewed with regard to organizational-related issues they had experienced in preparation for competition. Grounded theory procedures facilitated the development of a conceptual framework of organizational stressors consisting of five general dimensions: factors i...

This study aimed to contribute to a growing theoretical body of literature relating to the role of emotional intelligence abilities and emotion regulation strategies in creating optimally functioning in sport organizations. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 participants (athletes, coaches, administrators, national performance directo...

The purpose of this study was to synthesize the research that has identified the organizational stressors encountered by sport performers and develop a taxonomic classification of these environmental demands. This study used a meta-interpretation, which is an interpretive form of synthesis that is suited to topic areas employing primarily qualitati...

This study investigated the relationship between organizational stressors in sport and athlete burnout and involved a cross-cultural comparison of English and Japanese soccer players. Ninety-eight male players completed the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (Raedeke & Smith, 2001) to determine levels of perceived burnout. Based on data reported in prev...

Organizational stressors can potentially elicit a number of undesirable consequences for sport performers. It is, therefore, imperative that psychologists better understand the demands that athletes encounter via their exploration and assessment. However, although researchers have identified a wide range of organizational stressors in competitive s...

We investigated athletes' responses to organisational stressors. Ten sport performers (five males and five females) were interviewed with regard to the organisational-related demands they had encountered and their responses to these stressors. The main emotional responses that were revealed were anger, anxiety, disappointment, distress, happiness,...

The 9-month ethnography reported here investigated the critical factors underpinning organizational functioning in a national sport organization. The findings illustrate the pivotal importance of interpersonal relationships and highlight the emergence of emotion-related abilities as highly influential in successful person-organization dynamics. Spe...

The purpose of this review was to systematically identify and evaluate the psychosocial interventions used to manage a component of the stress process in competitive sport performers. Inclusion criteria were devised to select research relevant to the topic area. Studies were assessed for inclusion by examining their title, abstract, and then full t...

This study extends stress research by exploring sport psychologists’ experiences of organizational stressors. Twelve accredited sport psychologists (6 academics and 6 practitioners) were interviewed regarding their experiences of organizational stress within their jobs. Content analysis involved categorizing the demands associated primarily and dir...

This paper is an investigation of performance leadership and management in elite sport. Thirteen national performance directors of Olympic sports were interviewed with regard to best practice. Four main areas were identified: vision, operations, people, and culture. The main vision issues were vision development, influences on the vision, and shari...