Differences in burden from sport related and general developmental tasks between elite handball players and recreational players

Young elite athletes have to cope with high training loads while at the same time managing their educational career. Therefore, previous studies have found differences in the importance and satisfaction with general developmental tasks (GDT) in elite athletes (Ohlert & Ott, 2017), but until now, it is not clear, how the burden from GDT and also sport related developmental tasks (SDT) affects general stress perception in athletes. The current study aims to answer this question and at the same time compare a sample of recreational and elite handball players. Participants were 81 elite handball players (3rd league or above) and 101 recreational handball players (59% female; Ø age 18.3 years). They answered an online-based questionnaire on general stress and burden from single GDTs and SDTs. Results reveal that for elite handball players, burden from GDTs as well as SDTs shows a positive correlation with general stress. For recreational players, only burden from SDTs correlate positively with general stress. In detail, for recreational players, especially burden from coping with changes of the body and finding a balance between stress and relaxation are significant predictors of general stress. For elite players, however, coping with the surrounding conditions of elite sport and developing a vision about a future spouse, are significant stress predictors, and explained variance is much higher than for recreational players. Thus, coping with developmental tasks (from sport and from other areas of life) can be a stress factor for elite handball players that should not be neglected.