{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:51:01Z","timestamp":1760151061349,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,18]],"date-time":"2022-02-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1645142400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Grand Alliance CARE Consortium, funded by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD)","award":["W81XWH-BA170608"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["W81XWH-BA170608"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Early sport specialization has been associated with an increased risk of musculoskeletal injuries and unfavorable psychological outcomes; however, it is unknown whether sport specialization is associated with worse cognitive, postural, and psychological functions in first-year collegiate student-athletes. Methods: First-year collegiate multisport (MA) and single-sport (SA) student-athletes were identified using a pre-collegiate sport experience questionnaire. The cognitive, postural, and psychological functions were assessed by the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC), Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), and Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18). Results: MA student-athletes performed higher in cognitive outcomes (e.g., higher ImPACT visual memory composite scores [\u00df = 0.056, p &lt; 0.001]), but had higher psychological distress (e.g., higher BSI-18 global severity index [\u00df = 0.057, p &lt; 0.001]) and no difference in postural stability (p &gt; 0.05) than SA student-athletes. Conclusions: This study indicated first-year collegiate athletes with a history of sport specialization demonstrate lower cognitive performance but decreased psychological distress and no differences in static postural stability as compared to their MA counterparts. Future studies should consider involving different health measures to better understand the influence of sport specialization on overall physical and mental health.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph19042335","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,21]],"date-time":"2022-02-21T08:18:05Z","timestamp":1645431485000},"page":"2335","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Effects of Pre-Collegiate Sport Specialization on Cognitive, Postural, and Psychological Functions: Findings from the NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4429-0604","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tsung-Yeh","family":"Chou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Delaware, 547 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19716, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2329-3603","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jaclyn B.","family":"Caccese","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health and Rehabilitation Science, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, 453 W 10th Ave, Columbus, OH 43210, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0809-3152","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yu-Lun","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd., Da\u2019an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joseph J.","family":"Glutting","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Education, University of Delaware, 106 Alison Hall West, Newark, DE 19716, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0515-0150","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas A.","family":"Buckley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Delaware, 547 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19716, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Steven P.","family":"Broglio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Michigan Concussion Center, School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, 830 N University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thomas W.","family":"McAllister","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Indiana University, 340 West 10th Street Fairbanks Hall, Suite 6200, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael A.","family":"McCrea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paul F.","family":"Pasquina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Uniformed Services University, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0924-0978","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas W.","family":"Kaminski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Delaware, 547 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19716, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e995","DOI":"10.5435\/JAAOS-D-18-00187","article-title":"Early Sport Specialization","volume":"27","author":"Popkin","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. 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