Focusing on one sport can have both positive and negative consequences for teenagers, a study finds

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On the morning of August 19, 2015, a football helmet lies on the ground as members of the Floral Park High School football team practice for the 2015 season in the background. (Photo by Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday via Getty Images)

A research team recently set out to understand why high school athletes specialize in a single sport and specifically wanted to understand the role of athletes’ competitiveness in the decision to specialize.

Previous research has shown that repetitive sport specialization can lead to injury and burnout, and while that may still be the case, this new study, published in the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine, acknowledges that it’s likely more nuanced.

The researchers surveyed 975 US high school athletes and found two dimensions of competitiveness — enjoyment of competition, which was associated with intrinsic sports motivation and good sportsmanship, and contested competitiveness, which was associated with extrinsic sports motivation and poor sportsmanship.

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“Our research suggests that the story isn’t so much that specialization is bad as it is that specialization can have negative consequences,” Dee Warmath, a study co-author, told FOX Television Stations. “We found that high school athletes are more likely to specialize for positive reasons — a love of competition and a desire to get better at their chosen sport.”

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In fact, higher levels of competitive enjoyment were associated with higher odds of specialization, while higher levels of competitive contention were associated with lower odds.

According to the research team, the results of this study suggest that athletes who derive satisfaction or pleasure from the ability to perform at a higher level and to do so for as long as possible are more likely to specialize than athletes who enjoy the conflict or “win at all costs” mentality.

Ultimately, Warmath said there may be bad outcomes that come from specialization, but high school athletes appear to specialize for more positive reasons.

“I like to use the driving analogy,” Warmath explained. “There are some bad outcomes that can occur when you drive a car. Are we telling people not to drive? no We help them understand how to drive safely to minimize these potential outcomes. I think our research suggests that a similar approach might be warranted for sports specialization recommendations.