Comparing the healthy development of youth Australian Rules Footballers across talent development and community settings.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare talent development athletes to community-level athletes in Australian Rules Football across various markers of healthy youth development.
Methods: Survey data were collected from 363 youth athletes (126 women, 232 men, 5 not reported; Mage=18.69 years, SDage=2.62 years, age range 16-25 years) playing Australian Rules Football at a talent development (recruited from Australian Football League Talent Pathway, n=220) or community (n=143) level. Measures included markers of physical health (eg, general health, risk-taking behaviours), psychological and emotional well-being (eg, mental health symptoms, life satisfaction), family and social relationships (eg, social support, relationship status), educational and occupational attainment/engagement (eg, career satisfaction, education), ethical behaviour (eg, moral self-image), civic engagement, life skills (eg, self-mastery, coping), and demographics.
Results: Based on regression models, relative to community-level athletes, talent development athletes reported better physical health (d=0.51), lower injury rates (OR=0.50) and less problematic drug use (d=-0.46). Talent development athletes also reported better psychological and emotional well-being, evidenced by lower stress (d=-0.30), higher life satisfaction (d=0.47) and less problematic gambling (d=-0.34). Additionally, talent development athletes reported higher family support (d=0.49), lower likelihood of poor educational outcomes (less than expected educational stage; OR=0.37), lower intention to complete less than year 12 education (OR=0.18), higher career satisfaction (d=0.42), higher self-mastery (d=0.37) and higher perfectionistic striving (d=0.59).
Conclusion: Findings demonstrate markers of healthier development within talent development athletes relative to community athlete peers. Investment in community-level sports may be warranted to improve healthy development. However, further causal evidence is required.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: LG was the recipient of a PhD scholarship, funded by the Australian Football League (AFL). KH is employed by both Deakin University and the Australian Football League. NC, EHo and EHa are employed by the Australian Football League. EHo is a current athlete in the Australian Football League Women’s programme. Australian Football League employees had no involvement in data management or analysis.
(© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)