Faith in the future of sport: value differences among young athletes in Finland, Italy, Poland, and Sweden.

INTRODUCTION: Sports and physical activities play a key role in young people's physical, social, and moral development. However, the outcomes of this development may vary according to several factors, including age, gender, nationality, years of practice (YOP), and training tier, defined by athletes' training and performance levels. Therefore, this study aimed to examine how young athletes' values differ across countries and according to age, gender, training tier, and YOP. METHODS: Within the framework of the European project "Faith in the future of sports", the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire-2 (YSVQ-2), a 13-item survey categorizing values into Moral, Status, and Competence domains, was administered across four countries (Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden). RESULTS: A MANOVA conducted on a sample of 381 participants across the four European countries revealed statistically significant differences across all three value dimensions (Status, Competence, and Moral) and training tiers, age, gender and country. DISCUSSION: Overall, the findings highlight subgroup variations in value endorsement, indicating that cross-national mean differences are moderated by training tier, age, and gender.