Sports and Spirit: A Two-Decade Look from Psychologists

Over the past 23 years, sports psychology researchers have delved into the connection between spirituality and sports. They scoured databases like Psychology and Behavioral Science Collection, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Out of hundreds of articles, 61 made the cut. This review breaks down the findings into chunks. For instance, the number of studies in the second decade (2011-2023) was double that of the first (2000-2010). Athletes topped the participant list, with 30 articles focusing on them. But spirituality in sports wasn't far behind with 18 articles. Text analysis and surveys were the go-to methods, with 14 and 13 articles each. Data was mainly collected through library research, questionnaires, and interviews. The findings were a mix bag. Spirituality seemed to affect sports performance and culture, intersecting with religion too. Athlete's religious identity and psychological benefits were also on the table. However, clear cause-and-effect between spirituality and sports wasn't pinpointed.