Exploring dual career experiences of Swedish student-eSport players

Sammanfattning: The study aimed to explore the experiences of dual career (DC) among Swedish student-eSport players from a holistic perspective, and focused on the challenges faced in DC, the coping strategies used, and how DC influenced the student-eSport players. Interviews were conducted with 7 student-eSport players enrolled in an upper secondary school or university providing DC supportive resources. The participants were all males between 16 and 22 years of age (M= 18, SD= 2.16). The works of Stambulova et al. (2015) and Henriksen (2010) served as foundations in creating the two semi-structured interview guides used by the authors. The authors performed a thematic analysis of the data to identify experiences relevant to the concepts of dual career and athlete talent development. The results showed that the participants’ experienced challenges related to eSports, school, and their private lives. Their private lives were perceived to be the most challenging due to the need of balancing their time between their meaningful relationships and DC demands. Coping strategies claimed to be used were time management, physical activity, and relying on their supportive network. The supportive network encompassing the coach, school environment, friends, partner, and family were identified as a coping resource in congruence with the participants’ individual skills. Positive influence of DC on the student-eSport players was found in both academical and eSport, but negative in private life due to experiencing a lack of time to dedicate to family and friends. The results of the study reveal that Swedish student-eSport players’ DC experiences share similarities with those experienced by student-athletes in traditional sports, and highlights challenges and positive benefits associated with combining eSports with studies.