Reaching the top in sports and performing arts can be striving. For some elite junior performers, though, the perceived requests and stressors seem to be overwhelming, resulting in dropout, unfulfilled potential, and psychological ill-being. This distinct “dark side” of talent development is an understudied phenomenon. Hence, the purpose of this doctoral thesis was to contribute with deeper insight into the complexity of maladaptive motivational processes of elite junior performers from sports and performing arts. Guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017) the present doctoral thesis set out to examine the interplay between personal motivational mentality (who) and contextual conditions (where) in relation to malfunctioning and various debilitative motivational outcomes.
