Psychological Well-Being of Young Athletes in the Context of a Sports and Educational Career: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations

In response to a government request to create conditions for optimizing the process of combining educational and athletic pathways for modern Russian schoolchildren, the authors propose a new diagnostic approach to assessing the difficulties of young athletes. The concept of psychological well-being is introduced and substantiated as a system-forming criterion, allowing for the optimization of methodological approaches to analyzing the psychological conditions of combining athletic training with mastering the general education curriculum. A study on a sample of 188 students – young athletes (average age 14.6 years) using adapted methods revealed the predominance of an average (with a tendency to low) level of psychological well-being with a marked decrease in the components of “Environmental Management” and “Self-Acceptance”. The authors conclude that systemic psychological and pedagogical support is necessary for students combining school education with athletic training.