Psychosocial aspects of release in youth and developing athletes: a systematic review

Saward, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9363-3410, McGlinchey, TR ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7509-2868, Wood, NS ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5761-4802, Saward, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9363-3410, Healy, LC ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1372-7308 and Sarkar, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8338-8500, 2025. Psychosocial aspects of release in youth and developing athletes: a systematic review. Journal of Sports Sciences. ISSN 0264-0414

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Abstract

Release from sports teams, organisations and talent development programmes has been shown to have a number of effects on youth and developing athletes and their subsequent transition. The aim of this study was to systematically review, synthesise, and appraise research on release that has been conducted around youth and developing athletes. Specifically, this review aimed: (i) to examine psychosocial impacts of release; (ii) to examine factors related to adaptation to release; and (iii) to examine available resources for adaptation to release. Following a systematic search of six electronic databases and manual searches, a total of 15 studies that met the eligibility criteria were included in the final review. The studies included athletes from a variety of sports who were aged between 5 and 21 years, or athletes who were still part of a talent development programme. Although each of the included studies reported released athletes experiencing negative psychosocial impacts, positive psychosocial impacts were also identified in some studies. This review identified consistent links between factors and resources related to athletes’ adaptation to release and how they influence the psychosocial impacts experienced by released athletes. Applied implications for athletes, coaches, and other stakeholders involved in the release process have been provided.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Sports Sciences
Creators:	Saward, C., McGlinchey, T.R., Wood, N.S., Saward, C., Healy, L.C. and Sarkar, M.
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Date:	21 December 2025
ISSN:	0264-0414
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/02640414.2025.2604953 DOI 2551407 Other
Rights:	© 2025 the author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	24 Feb 2026 14:36
Last Modified:	24 Feb 2026 14:36
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55326

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