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Develop Or Diminish? An Exploration Of Adolescent Athlete Flow Experiences, Hayes Mayfield Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of flow was birthed from positive psychology specifically to uncover individuals’ most positive experiences and “understand the roots of happiness” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2004). Because of the nature of flow experiences, individuals continually seek out opportunities to have more of these experiences (Seifert & Hedderson, 2010; Swann et al., 2018), however, little is known regarding how adolescents experience flow. For early-adolescents (11-14 years old: Holt, 2007), sports represent an environment that often produces physical, psychological, and social benefits (Crane & Temple, 2015), and combats negative factors (Pluhar et al., 2019). Unfortunately, adolescent athletes are particularly vulnerable to burnout and sports …