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Well-being in competitive sports—The feel-good factor? A review of conceptual considerations of well-being

DOI:10.1080/1750984X.2011.584067
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Carolina Lundqvist at Linköping University
Carolina Lundqvist
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Abstract

This paper summarizes the topic of well-being as it applies to competitive athletes, with a particular focus on definitional and conceptual issues. Established definitions within research on human happiness and flourishing based on the hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives are contrasted against definitions applied within sport psychology. The majority of the reviewed sport psychology studies either failed to define well-being or used a variety of labels to describe the construct (e.g., subjective well-being, psychological well-being, mental well-being). A large number of assessments have been used to assess well-being among athletes, but most were applied with only a weak theoretical rationale and did not distinguish between well-being at the global and sport levels. It is concluded that well-being studies within sport psychology have been hampered by conceptual ambiguity, which makes it difficult to compare results across studies and generalize findings in order to develop a sound theoretical base of knowledge. Future research needs to more explicitly define the conceptual framework of well-being and the level (global or context-specific) on which the construct is investigated. Toward this goal, an integrated model is presented to provide a conceptual well-being structure in sport studies, and future directions for research are discussed.
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Well-being in competitive sports – the feel-good
factor?: A review of conceptual considerations in
well-being research
Carolina Lundqvist
The self-archived postprint version of this journal article is available at Linköping
University Institutional Repository (DiVA):
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-153215
N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original publication.
Lundqvist, C., (2011), Well-being in competitive sports – the feel-good factor?: A review of conceptual
considerations in well-being research, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4(2),
109-127. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2011.584067
Original publication available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2011.584067
Copyright: Routledge
http://www.routledge.com/
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... The differing philosophical perspectives (hedonia and eudaimonia) of well-being lead to different ways of examination regarding the causes, consequences, and dynamics of well-being (24), and ultimately inconclusive results when looking across the well-being in sport literature. Lundqvist (117) argues that researchers need to explicitly state which perspective they are operating from and if utilizing quantitative methods need to use established measurements that theoretically fit with the chosen well-being perspective. Due to conceptual ambiguity and inconsistent definitions and measurements between studies, it is difficult to compare results, generalize findings, or develop a theoretical base of knowledge (117). ...
... Lundqvist (117) argues that researchers need to explicitly state which perspective they are operating from and if utilizing quantitative methods need to use established measurements that theoretically fit with the chosen well-being perspective. Due to conceptual ambiguity and inconsistent definitions and measurements between studies, it is difficult to compare results, generalize findings, or develop a theoretical base of knowledge (117). With future research clearly stating their well-being perspective, as well as working within theoretical alignment (concepts and measures), we can start to synthesize related well-being research and begin to theoretically understand athlete EWB and how to better support athlete EWB. ...
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