Sport Psychology / Sport Science: Fully Funded PhD Scholarship: Enhancing the development of facilitative psychological characteristics and behaviours in adolescent student-athletes

Funding providers: Swansea University and Millfield School

Subject areas: Sport Psychology / Sport Science

Project start date: 

• 1 April 2022 (Enrolment open from mid-March)

Supervisors: 

• Professor Camilla Knight
• Dr Denise Hill
• Dr Victoria Lovett

External advisors:

• Professor Chris Harwood (Loughborough University)
• Professor Kris Henriksen (University of Southern Denmark)

Aligned programme of study: PhD in Sport and Exercise Science

Mode of study: Full-time

Project description:

The overarching aim of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a psychological skills programme for student-athletes, with the aim of creating facilitative psychosocial characteristics and behaviours. This project will utilise an action research methodology to first identify the specific psychological needs of the student-athletes at Millfield School and subsequently implement a series of interventions to address these needs. The initial identification of need will occur through a series of interviews and focus groups with students, teachers, and coaches and supported with observational data obtained on the student-athletes. Subsequently, a psychological skills programme (the intervention) will be developed and implemented before being evaluated through a series of qualitative, quantitative, and reflective methods. Based on the outcome of this evaluation, a revised programme (intervention two) will be developed and implemented. This programme will again be evaluated using a number of different methods to identify what impact the programme had, who it impacted on, and how it worked. Based on this data, recommendations for future psychological skills programmes for adolescent student-athletes will be produced.

Eligibility

Candidates must normally hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) in Sports Science or similar relevant science discipline.

Additional requirements:

1. Requirement to have applied sport psychology experience working with adolescent student-athletes
2. Completed/completing appropriate accreditation in Sport and Exercise Science/Sport and Exercise Psychology
3. Confidence working with qualitative methods
4. Familiarity with the private school sector

English Language requirements: If applicable – IELTS 6.5 overall (with at least 5.5 in each individual component) or Swansea recognised equivalent. Details on the Swansea University English Language entry policy can be found here.

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to UK and EU based students only. EU Students must be eligible to receive the EU Transitional Bursary Scheme.