Sport,Ethnicity and Racism: The Experience of Asian Heritage Boys

Abstract

It is now almost two decades since concerns were originally expressed regarding the participation of Asian heritage schoolchildren in physical education and sport. Since then, an increasing flow of research literature and, in many instances, successful school initiatives to implement positive multicultural/antiracist policies, have been undertaken to provide equality of opportunity for these pupils. However, problems of access and achievement in physical activity still affect this group and serious health concerns continue to occur, perhaps as a result of such low levels of participation. There remains little take‐up of sport as a career among Asian heritage children. Against the backdrop of these various concerns, this paper contributes to knowledge of issues surrounding the participation of Asian heritage boys in physical education and sport. Through use of interviews and observation, the research focuses on the experiences of primary and secondary age boys within four inner‐urban schools in the North West of England. Findings suggest, primarily, that the role of Asian heritage parents within the sport socialisation experiences of their children was highly influential. Multicultural/antiracist policies were working well within these schools and racism was not stated as the main reason for non‐participation; the low status afforded to physical education and sport, within the home and community, was found to be a more influential factor. Where schools had become proactive in addressing this issue, improved participation had resulted. Findings suggest that education should focus more on Asian heritage attitudes in addition to maintaining and enhancing the antiracism process.     

Sport,women, and leadership: Results of a project on executives in German sports organizations

Abstract

Throughout the world, women are a small minority within the governing bodies of organized sport. This paper presents the results of three empirical studies that have been undertaken within a German research project. The representative survey of all male and female executives in German sports federations (N=697) included questions concerning their socio-demography, their careers as executive members of sports organizations, as well as their careers in sport and their chosen occupation. The survey reveals significant gender differences in terms of, for example, age, family situation, responsibilities in the executive committees, duration of office, and career barriers. Furthermore, we conducted 23 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women in leadership positions to explore the women's individual perspectives. The aim of a second interview study (“drop-out” study) was to identify barriers in the voluntary careers of seven male and nine female leaders who left office prematurely (i.e. earlier than they had originally planned). These informants can be seen as experts who have an excellent insight into their organizations and who have also experienced barriers that caused them to “drop out”. The respondents’ statements showed similarities with regard to socio-economic background but considerable differences in terms of gender-specific experiences, attitudes, and evaluations. The demands placed on the sports leaders were much more in line with the biographies of the men interviewed than with the personal circumstances of the women.     

Sport injuries as the main cause of sport career termination among Finnish top-level athletes

Abstract

Injuries are common among athletes, and are sometimes so severe that they affect an athlete's career in sport. As studies on sport career termination are few, we conducted a study to investigate the role of injuries as a reason for ending a sport career. The study group consisted of 574 male and female top-level cross-country skiers, swimmers, long-distance runners and soccer players who responded to a retrospective postal questionnaire in 2006. Twenty-seven athletes (4.9%, 27/548) reported ending their sport career because of injury. A follow-up interview was conducted by telephone in 2007 (n=20 volunteered to be interviewed) to confirm sport career termination and the reasons for this. Fifteen of the interviewed athletes terminated and five continued their sport on the same level as earlier. Female athletes (12/15) terminated their sport career more frequently than male athletes (3/15). Athletes who reported terminating their sport career because of injury were on average two and a half years older (24.1 years vs. 21.6 years, P=0.006) than athletes who continued the sport. All the swimmers (n=5) who were interviewed terminated their career because of a shoulder injury. All the soccer players who ended their career (n=4) were female and had a severe knee injury, such as anterior cruciate ligament injury. Most of the athletes who terminated their sport career (70.4%, 19/27) reported that the injury caused them mild or moderate permanent disability. We found that sports injuries play a significant role in terminating a career in sport, and in some sports events injuries may commonly be the main reason for sport career termination. Injury prevention and adequate treatment and rehabilitation of injuries are thus essential to avoid the long-term consequences of severe sport injuries.     

Bio-pedagogical self-reflection in PETE: reawakening the ethical conscience and purpose in pedagogy and research

abstract

To date, limited attention has been paid to the relationship of young female Muslims in Western Europe and sport. However as the present review will reveal, this relationship can be described as problematic and therefore needs specific attention. On the one hand, research has indicated that most of these girls have a positive attitude towards sport. While on the other hand, their actual level of sport participation is very low in comparison to other youngsters. It is often stated that this discrepancy is caused by the fact that sport participation is highly restricted by Islamic living rules especially for females. And yet a number of authors have argued that Islam does not obstruct females' sport participation. The present paper attempts to provide more insight in a number of characteristics of the relationship between Islam and the sport participation of Muslim girls who live in Western Europe. Finally, some recommendations for a sport promotion policy and future research directions are formulated.     

UrbanDig Project: sport practices and artistic interventions for co-creating urban space

Abstract

The paper argues that sports and art can compose a common cultural language that operates as a tool for communities to co-create urban space. In particular, we present the research/artistic/community platform ‘UrbanDig Project’, based in Athens, Greece. The platform employs artistic and sport practices as a means to activate and bridge local communities, collect stories, call for participation and action and finally narrate, re-imagine and even re-construct urban space. We choose to discuss certain moments of the platform’s projects, as fruitful examples of its social impact. Within the conceptual framework of the production of space and the sports-art representations, we discuss how sport and artistic practices can intervene in the urban space, map the communities’ aspirations and lead to collective decision-making as an alternative grassroots participatory-planning method.     

Mission impossible? Reflecting upon the relationship between physical education,youth sport and lifelong participation

It is widely believed that school physical education (PE) is or, at the very least, can (even should) be a crucial vehicle for enhancing young people's engagement with physically active recreation (typically but not exclusively in the form of sport) in their leisure and, in the longer run, over the life-course. Despite the prevalence of such beliefs, there remains a dearth of evidence demonstrating a ‘PE effect’. Indeed, the precise nature of the relationship between PE, youth¹1. Youth is defined as a life-stage that in chronological terms can be very broadly mapped onto the latter teenage years, with some leeway at the upper end to include the post-teen years up to young adulthood. Thus, youth is regarded as a period of transition ranging from roughly 15 to 25 years. For the purposes of this article, the emphasis will be on the latter secondary school years. sport and lifelong participation is seldom explored other than in implicit, often speculative and discursive, ways that simply take-for-granted the positive effects of the former (PE) on the latter (youth and adult participation in sport and physically active recreation). Using largely European studies to frame the issue, this article reflects upon the supposedly ‘causal’ relationship between PE, youth sport and lifelong participation and, in doing so, highlights the inherent problems associated with attempts to identify, characterise and establish a ‘PE effect.’ In the process, the article points to a need for more longitudinal and biographical research exploring sports careers and the sporting habituses of young people, not least in order to better understand in precisely what circumstances PE interventions might work to enhance youth involvement in sport and physical activity and, subsequently, lifelong participation.     

Return to competitive football after major knee surgery: more questions than answers?

Abstract

Despite significant advances in the diagnostics and treatment of knee injuries over the last decade, several challenges related to the subject “return to sport” remain largely unknown. For example, how should “return to sport” be defined precisely? What is the optimal timing and progression to enable a return to sport? Which criteria should be used during this process? What type of training is indicated? Which measurements can support the decision-making process? How do we optimally prepare athletes for competition without risking re-injury?

This paper critically addresses these questions, and proposes a return to play model to prepare football players to compete after major knee surgery (anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, cartilage repair). The goal is to re-integrate the player gradually into the game, taking into account his individual characteristics. Several evidence-based and empirical criteria are needed to plan and monitor the efficient return to competitive football. Injury-prevention education should be part of this process to maximise the chance of a durable career and decrease the risk of re-injury.

However, because of the paucity of research on “return to sport”, further research is more than warranted.     

Do generations differ in sports participation and physical activity over the life course? Evidence from multiple datasets

ABSTRACT

Generational differences in health-related factors will affect forecasts of future disease patterns and health care needs. We studied whether participation in sports activity and being physically active are different between 10-year generations over a part of their life course. We used three different datasets on Dutch adults: a cohort study running for 20 years, the Doetinchem Cohort Study (DCS), multiple yearly databases (2001–2015) from the Netherlands health interview study (HIS), and a retrospective cohort study on life time sports careers, the Sports Participation Monitor (SPM). Based on a different questionnaire in each study, frequencies of weekly sport participation and being physically active according to recommended levels were determined by generation and sex. All data sets showed that self-reported sport participation has been increasing with every 10-year generation already for many decades. Especially for those generations born in the 1930s up to the 1960s, sport participation is higher compared to their predecessors. For instance at age 50, 43% of those born in the 1940s engaged in sports activities compared to 55% of those born in the 1950s (DCS data). Physical activity according to recommended levels showed no systematic differences by generation.

In conclusion, favourable generation-specific trends in participation in sports activities are found: recent generations are doing better than the older generations. It is unclear whether this also reflects higher levels of physical activity or lower levels of inactivity. Future research may reveal whether these developments also hold for other countries, and whether these developments continue for the younger generations.     

School sports and identity formation: Socialisation or selection?

Abstract

It seems common knowledge that school sport participation leads to all kinds of social, educational and health outcomes. However, it may also be that students with a certain predisposition, sometimes referred to as sporting habitus, are more inclined to participate in school sports and that the ‘outcomes’ were already present before participation. Several studies indicated that identity formation mediates between sport participation and the outcomes described. Therefore, a longitudinal survey study was used to investigate whether participation in an elementary school sport competition brought about changes in the formation of sport identity and student identity of students. The results of the study showed that participation in the competition was not related to changes in the sport identity and student identity of the children. In contrast to commonplace assumptions about the socialising effects of school sport participation, the results indicate that participating in this school sport competition did not influence the student identity and sport identity of children. It may be that a selected, predisposed group of children with a strong sport identity participates in school sports, although future research is necessary to test this hypothesis.     

Effects of contact/collision sport history on gait in early- to mid-adulthood

BackgroundTo determine the effect of contact/collision sport participation on measures of single-task (ST) and dual-task (DT) gait among early- to middle-aged adults.MethodsThe study recruited 113 adults (34.88 ± 11.80 years, (mean ± SD); 53.0% female) representing 4 groups. Groups included (a) former non-contact/collision athletes and non-athletes who are not physically active (n = 28); (b) former non-contact/collision athletes who are physically active (n = 29); (c) former contact/collision sport athletes who participated in high-risk sports and are physically active (n = 29); and (d) former rugby players with prolonged repetitive head impact exposure history who are physically active (n = 27). Gait parameters were collected using inertial measurement units during ST and DT gait. DT cost was calculated for all gait parameters (double support, gait speed, and stride length). Groups were compared first using one-way analysis of covariance. Then a multiple regression was performed for participants in the high-risk sport athletes and repetitive head impact exposure athletes groups only to predict gait outcomes from contact/collision sport career duration.ResultsThere were no significant differences between groups on any ST, DT, or DT cost outcomes (p > 0.05). Contact/collision sport duration did not predict any ST, DT, or DT cost gait outcomes.ConclusionYears and history of contact/collision sport participation does not appear to negatively affect or predict neurobehavioral function in early- to mid-adulthood among physically active individuals.     

Sport burnout inventory–Dual career form for student-athletes: Assessing validity and reliability in a Finnish sample of adolescent athletes

BackgroundThe pressure of pursuing an athletic career simultaneously with education may set adolescent student-athletes at risk for sport and school burnout. Although the 2 life domains of student-athletes are strongly intertwined, so far, there has not been an instrument for investigating sport burnout parallel to school burnout. The aim of the present study was to introduce a sport burnout measure for adolescents in a dual career context and investigate its validity and reliability by using confirmatory factor analysis.MethodsThe participants were 391 student-athletes (51% females) who filled in a questionnaire of sport burnout and background variables in the beginning of upper secondary school.ResultsA 3-factor model or a second-order-factor model described the data better and gave better reliability indices than a 1-factor model. The 3 dimensions of sport burnout were shown to be separate, but closely related constructs. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was obtained by correlating the 3 sport burnout dimensions with depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and sport task values.ConclusionThe results suggest that Sport Burnout Inventory–Dual Career Form (SpBI-DC) is a valid and reliable instrument for investigating sport burnout among adolescent student-athletes.     

Coach career development: Who is responsible?

Career development is crucial to the success of individuals, organizations and industries. As such, in many professions there are prescribed career development processes underpinned by legal and institutional policies that drive managerial practice. Although there has been sustained interest in understanding career development for athletes and building managerial strategies to assist in the process, there is little empirical knowledge about career development of coaches, and how management may assist in the process. The aim of this study is to explore the way in which sport policy discourse and agendas have impacted coach career development. This study demonstrates that coaches’ careers are not part of the policy discourse despite their important role in athlete performance, career development and sport organization development and success. Coaches are the key performance managers in sport and yet they are ignored by sport policy makers and managers when considering the development of the Australian sport workforce.     

Community sport programmes and social inclusion: what role for positive psychological capital?

Abstract

(Re-)Engagement with education and employment is a common objective within interventions designed to enhance social inclusion through sport participation. Consequently, the acquisition of capital to expedite the (re)engagement process has become a familiar theme. Literature has examined how various forms of capital may be accumulated through participation in sport. However, competing literature has explored how participation may enable positive psychological capital—which comprises personal qualities such as resilience, hope, optimism and self-efficacy—to be developed. This article adds to this work, by providing insights from a sports-based project which aimed to develop social inclusion among marginalized youth in three regions of the UK. Utilizing data from semi-structured interviews, we highlight how participation enabled young people to enhance the components of positive psychological capital, and offer a further theoretical vantage point from which to understand and debate the relationship between participation in sport and social inclusion.     

Unplanned Sport Participation in Townships in China’s Lüliang

Abstract

This paper selected two townships in China’s Lüliang, a city in the west of Shanxi province, as examples to examine sport participation during the urbanization process. The data were collected through 50 in-depth interviews during the summer of 2010. This research applied Elias’s figurational theory to discuss the findings. This research found that sport participation, as a way of life, was not a planned development. Rather it was interdependent, a consequence of other societal factors.     

An Examination of Sport Participation Tracking and Adult Physical Activity for Participants of the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study

ABSTRACT

Research tracking sport participation from youth to adulthood is relatively rare, as is research that tracks youth sport participation with regard to adult physical activity (PA) levels, especially in the United States. Aims of this study were: 1) To investigate the degree to which sport participation tracked across youth, adolescence, and early adulthood in a sample of participants from the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study (MPS), and 2) Determine if differences existed in their levels of adult PA relative to prior sport participation. In total, 256 (60.8%) former participants from the MPS completed follow-up surveys regarding routine sport participation and PA across the previous year. Sport participation tracked consistently from youth to college. Further, regardless of the level of youth sport participation, adult leisure time PA was relatively consistent among groups. Although the study did not directly test the influence of the MPS on subsequent adult outcomes, our findings suggest that participants’ past sport participation was not a good predictor of adult PA for those who were involved in a program that emphasized fundamental motor skills in youth. Further investigation of such programs can help to better inform their influence on adult PA.     

Sport Management with Historical Perspective

Abstract

Aspirations are prospective and forward looking; what does one seek to achieve? Reflections are retrospective and gaze backwards; has one achieved said aspirations? The following narrative, while indulgently about one individual, is also intended to reflect on wider challenges and opportunities for scholars working in sport history. Academic careers are replete with pragmatism amidst idealism: in my case it was a journey from history, to sport history, and then to sport management.     

About inclusive participation in sport: cultural desirability and technical obstacles

Abstract

What does it mean full participation of people with disabilities in ‘sports for all’? Beyond the right of access, the right of sharing can enrich the quality of participation in sport, overcoming segregation. But how can be guaranteed an ‘inclusive participation’ that avoids the double risk of ‘normalizing’ integration or ‘charitable’ integration? Beyond 'being among the others' or even 'doing with the others', people with disabilities should also have the possibility to ‘be valued by the others’ through the real recognition of their participation in this shared sport experience. This is not only a cultural shift, but also a technical challenge, especially to fill the persistent gap between the inclusive rhetoric and the inclusive practices really available to the people. We will explore then the key issue of the technicality of inclusive participation in sport, showing the interest of applying the principles of design for all to the architecture of sports rules.     

Assessing parental impact on the sports participation of children: A socio-economic analysis of the UK

Abstract

This study examines the effects of parental attitudes on children's physical activity. A measure of parental attitude (their sport participation when being young) that is independent of the child's behaviour is needed. Using data from the sixth wave of the Taking Part Survey (n =14,002 adults and n =1116 children), a matching estimator analysis is conducted. The results reveal that there are substantial intergenerational transfers of behaviours, in particular for male adults and male children. Furthermore, while an effect is observed for female adults and male children, female children's sport participation is only marginally influenced by female adult's physical activity when growing up. The results imply that promoting sport to the younger generation seems to be a fruitful strategy in creating a sporting habit and promoting sport participation when being older. However, there are challenges to be overcome in promoting female participation.