Young Athletes

The Test Solution “Young Athletes” is based on the meta-analytic foundations of general sport psychology performance research (see also (8.30-de) (Team) Athletes; Scharfen & Memmert, 2019; Kalén et al., 2021), supplemented by systematic reviews and studies on cognitive development in childhood and adolescence. Review papers show that there is less evidence for the relationship between higher cognitive abilities and athletic performance, while group-differentiating effects have frequently been described for executive functions in youth samples (cf. Singh et al., 2018).

Individual studies in youth samples particularly emphasize the relevance of inhibition, divided attention and working memory: Giordano and colleagues (2021) showed that these three executive functions in particular display the largest group differences between children and adolescents involved in combat sports, team sports and no sporting activity, while verbal fluency showed no differential contribution and decision-related performance in gambling tasks was less strongly associated with sporting activity. In young soccer players, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in particular proved to be performance-relevant characteristics, while visual working memory, reaction time and basic processing speed (TMT-A) showed no meaningful differences between elite and sub-elite athletes (Huijgen et al., 2015). Selection for early elite soccer could also be partially predicted by inhibitory control (Sakamoto et al., 2018). Overall, findings indicate that in adolescence, components of executive functions, particularly inhibition, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, working memory and divided attention, are considered robust predictors of athletic performance and developmental differences, although findings differ in their level of differentiation across studies. Higher cognitive functions and metacognitive planning performance, however, are less consistently researched in child and youth sport psychology.

Due to the lack of meta-analytic findings on the relationship between personality and athletic success in young athletes, the selection and weighting of personality traits are based on the findings of Yang et al. (2024), who identified the largest and most consistent relationships between personality and athletic performance in conscientiousness and extraversion, while agreeableness showed differential effects depending on the type of sport.

The Test Solution “Young Athletes” therefore includes the following dimensions:

• Processing speed (TMT-S)

• Divided attention (TACO)

• Working memory (SPAN)

• Cognitive flexibility (TMT-S)

• Interference (STROOP)

• Reactive stress tolerance (DT)

• Logical reasoning (INT)

• Obtaining an overview (ATAVT-2)

• Personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Emotional stability (FCB5)

The table below provides a complete overview of the specific weightings of the individual tests used to calculate the overall score for the Test Solution “Young Athletes”. No differentiated meta-analytic effects are available for this age group, therefore the weighting follows the adult meta-analyses (see also (8.30-de) (Team) Athletes; Yang et al., 2024). Further information on the calculation and interpretation of the result of a testing can be found on the page: Notes on evaluation and interpretation.

A standard form is available that fully assesses the performance dimensions and personality traits listed above. In addition, a screening form is available that focuses on the central executive functions as well as personality (SPAN, TMT-S, TACO, FCB5). The test duration of the standard form is approximately 73 minutes, and the screening form approximately 29 minutes.

References can be found here: Literature