Sustainable Elite Youth Sports: A Systematic Scoping Review of the Social Dimensions

Summary

This systematic scoping review synthesises 99 peer-reviewed articles addressing social sustainability in elite youth sports across five disciplinary databases. The authors identify fragmented conceptual understanding of social sustainability, a predominance of athlete-focused micro-level research, and methodological skew toward quantitative approaches. The review calls for theoretically grounded empirical work, greater attention to contextual and systemic influences, and interdisciplinary research infrastructure to advance holistic youth development within elite sports.

UK applicability

The review's findings on fragmented governance, lack of preventive frameworks, and under-researched organisational dimensions are likely relevant to UK elite youth sports structures (e.g. Sport England, national governing bodies). The emphasis on trans-disciplinary research and macro-level policy conditions could inform UK sports development strategy and funding allocation, though geographic specificity of findings is not addressed in the abstract.

Key measures

Study count and distribution by discipline; thematic categorisation (athlete development, athlete health and well-being, athlete development environment); methodological approach (quantitative vs. qualitative); representation of sports types and gender; research level focus (micro vs. macro/organisational)

Outcomes reported

The scoping review identified 99 peer-reviewed articles and mapped their disciplinary origins, conceptual frameworks, and methodological approaches to social sustainability in youth elite sports. Key findings include lack of conceptual clarity on social sustainability, concentration of research on athlete-level outcomes rather than organisational or societal dimensions, and notable inequities in research coverage (overrepresentation of soccer and men's sports).

Topic tags