Saturday 25 July 09:50
- 11:20
Hall: 09 - Palazzina 1
Chair and Presenter:
D'Angelo Chiara
Discussant:
Gozzoli Caterina
Division: Division 12: Sport Psychology
This invited symposium addresses the evolving professional pathways and psychological support systems in sport, adopting applied and context-sensitive perspectives. By integrating contributions across different roles and settings, the symposium examines how athletes, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners navigate issues of precariousness, career development, identity, and cultural attitudes.
The first contribution introduces a psychosociological lens on precariousness in Italian professional football, highlighting how fragile institutional mediation reshapes the relationship between subjectivity, work, and society. The second examines a university-based Dual Career program, showing how process evaluation can illuminate relational dynamics, enablers, and future challenges of career assistance in higher education. The third is a reflective narrative of a trainee sport psychologist, illustrating how transnationalism, gender, and dual career experiences shape identity and professional philosophy. The fourth contribution investigates cultural attitudes toward sport psychology among Italian athletes and coaches, revealing generally positive perceptions yet significant demographic differences. Finally, the fifth presentation reflects on professional dilemmas at the French Institute of Sport (INSEP), where the boundary between performance enhancement and mental health care demands collaboration, ethical sensitivity, and role negotiation.
Taken together, these studies and reflections emphasize the multifaceted and dynamic nature of professional development in sport. They highlight the importance of culturally grounded, ethically reflective, and context-aware practices for sustaining both people and professions in applied sport psychology.
