The aim of this FEPSAC Position Statement is to summarize current knowledge about athletes' dual careers (DCs) in the European context and propose recommendations for future DC research, practice, and policy. Inspired by the European Union's Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes (European Commission, 2012), researchers, practitioners, and policy makers collaborated over the last decade to create the European DC discourse as a context-informed and negotiated body of DC knowledge. In this paper, we proceed from analyzing this body of knowledge using recent review papers and European DC psychological research projects to formulating seven postulates summarizing DC research findings on factors influencing athletes in their striving for DC excellence. These factors include (1) context, (2) pathways and transitions, (3) challenges, (4) resources and coping, (5) support and empowerment, (6) student-athletes' mental health, and (7) DC development environments. In the final section, we acknowledge the contributions of European DC discourse in serving athletes in their pursuit of DC excellence and European DC culture. We also provide a critical discussion on DC knowledge gaps and, on behalf of FEPSAC, offer recommendations for DC research, practice, and policy in Europe.

This study examined the contribution of situational probability information to the perceptual and cognitive processes underlying decision-making behaviour during in situ Karate performance. Experts and novices were required to make decisions about various attacks in different fight scenarios. The order in which the fight situations were presented was modified in order to provide advanced probability information and identify whether fighters were able to use the latter information to make better decisions. Specifically, one of the attacks was repeated every four actions. Results revealed that experts were more accurate and faster than their less skilled counterparts to block and counterattack the opponent. The experts picked up the occurrence of the attack pattern after the fifth repetition whereas novices did not. This enabled experts to improve decision time and decision accuracy. Findings suggest that such superiority could stem from the perceptual and cognitive skills possessed by the experts, thus giving them the opportunity to recognise a situation more easily. This was reinforced by gaze behaviour which demonstrated that experts used a more efficient search strategy involving fewer fixations of longer duration on a lesser number of areas relative to the novices. Moreover, experts generated more refined karate-specific knowledge structures compared with the novices.

Feeling anxious and presenting self-determined motivations about returning to sport after a break may impair sport performance and increase the risk of sustaining an injury. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore differences in anxiety and motivation to return to sport according to gender, expertise, training status before and during the lockdown, and athletes’ availability (i.e., injury status) at the time of the lockdown. A total of 759 competitive athletes (49% female; mean age: 27 ± 10 years old) completed the cross-sectional study. Participants were invited to state their expertise, training status before and during the lockdown (did they have a training program), and whether they were injured at the start of the lockdown. Additionally, participants filled out psychometric self-report measures of anxiety (TFAI-return) and motivation (SMS-return) to return to sport. Due to non-normal distributions in the TFAI and SMS scores, non-parametric group comparisons were performed to compare participants for each categorical variable: non-parametric correlation tests were also performed to test the associations between continuous variables. Group comparisons showed higher scores of anxiety for females, younger athletes, athletes practicing and competing at the highest level, and athletes without a training program during the lockdown. Moreover, results suggested lower motivation scores (i.e., autonomous and controlled) for older athletes, experts (practicing for more than 10 years), athletes practicing and competing at a lower level, and athletes without a training program during the lockdown. Additionally, participants who were injured at the start of the lockdown reported higher scores of cognitive anxiety to return to sport than non-injured participants. The results of this study suggest that elite athletes may have suffered from external pressures to return to sport during the lockdown. Additionally, participants with a training program during the lockdown seemed to be less anxious and more self-determined to return to sport after the lockdown. Future studies may focus on the impact of cognitive behavioral interventions on anxiety and motivation to return to sport.

Background: The current investigation is the first large-scale population-based study from France that documents the association between excess body weight and common psychiatric disorders, and examines the influence of gender on the association between excess body weight and these disorders. A recent plan has been implemented in France to treat the rising rate of those who are overweight or obese, and we seek to demonstrate whether integrated treatment of excess weight and psychiatric conditions appears as indicated. Materials and Methods: Data were drawn from a cross-sectional general population survey of 17,237 adults. Past-year psychiatric disorders were assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form. Body mass index was used to determine excess weight status. Results: Overall, 3.7% of the sample were underweight, 57% were normal weight, 28% were overweight (35% of men, 22% of women), and 11% were obese (11% of men, 11% of women). Being overweight was more common in men than women, although obesity did not differ by gender. Sociodemographic variables significantly associated with weight status included, age, marital status, education, employment status, income level, and population density. Adjusting for these variables, being overweight was associated with major depression and other disorders among women and inversely associated with drug abuse and dependence among men. Obesity was associated with major depression, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, specific phobia, and obsessive–compulsive disorder among women. Only generalized anxiety was associated with obesity among men. Conclusion: Past year, mental disorders were more likely associated with being overweight or obese among women as compared with men. The prevalence of these co-occurring psychiatric disorders in the context of the rising rate of obesity in France indicates a clear need for psychiatric assessment and treatment in caring for those with excess weight, especially women. Preliminary reports suggest this need is unmet within the otherwise progressive move in France to assist those struggling with excess weight.