Effects of Early Sports Specialization on Mental Health and Physical Injuries

Abstract

In the landscape of athletics, the topic of sports specialization has recently become more prevalent. From a young age, athletes and their parents see playing sports as an avenue to earn college scholarships, as well as other monies via competition professionally and/or endorsements. With these goals in mind, some athletes see the benefits of choosing to specialize, and to only play one sport year-round. However, specializing in a single sport may also have negative consequences that may not be expected. The purpose of this synthesis is to investigate the effects of early sports specialization on mental health and physical injuries. It was reported that mental health issues from sports specialization are often associated with burnout athletes may no longer enjoy the sport, and they may end up having shortened careers. In addition, physical injuries are often due to overuse of specific body parts for particular sports. This literature review concludes that the benefits of specializing in one sport are more often outweighed by the negatives consequences.