Assessment in Youth Sport: Practical Issues and Best Practice Guidelines

Assessment is an important element to the present and future of sport psychology (McCann et al., 2002), both in science and in practice. Yet, there exist few resources addressing the unique developmental parameters facing sport scientists and sport practitioners when it comes to conducting sound assessment across the athletic lifespan. Indeed, this aspect of the literature remains particularly sparse with respect to youth sport assessment (Noble, 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the practical issues and best practice guidelines pertaining to assessment during the provision of sport psychology services to children and adolescent athletes.