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.     

Organizational evolution and the Olympic Games: the case of sport climbing

Abstract

This paper discusses the processes underpinning the evolutionary development of sport climbing in recent decades, with a particular focus on the impact of its inclusion in the Olympic Games. New institutionalism and resource-dependence theory provide an analytical and explanatory framework for this study. The research adopted a qualitative method strategy comprising a series of interviews and the analysis of documents, reports, press and social media. The recent inclusion of the sport in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic programme has created challenges, primarily because of strong values inherent within the sport. The research, however, shows that the values of a sport can expand and develop in order to fit the regulatory legitimacy required by inclusion in the Olympic Games. Nonetheless, the research also shows that involvement with the IOC raises questions about who ‘owns’ the sport.     

Mediating Peer Teaching for Learning Games: An Action Research Intervention Across Three Consecutive Sport Education Seasons

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide an integrated analysis of a teacher’s peer-teaching mediation strategies, the student-coaches’ instruction, and the students’ gameplay development across 3 consecutive seasons of sport education. Method: Twenty-six 7th-grade students participated in 3 consecutive sport education seasons of invasion games (basketball, handball, and soccer). The research involved 3 action research cycles, 1 per season, and each cycle included the processes of planning, acting and monitoring, reflecting, and fact finding. Data collection consisted of videotape and audiotape records of all 47 lessons, a reflective field diary kept by the first author in the role of teacher-researcher, and a total of 24 semistructured focus-group interviews. Trustworthiness criteria for assuring the quality of qualitative research included extensive data triangulation, stakeholders’ crosschecking, and collaborative interpretational analysis. Results: Through the application of systematic preparation strategies, student-coaches were able to successfully conduct team instruction that resulted in students’ tactical development and improved performance. Aspects such as the study of predominant configurations of players’ gameplay and similar tactical principles across games within the same category prevented a setback in the complexity of the learning content addressed at the beginning of each season. Players also showed an increasing ability to adapt gameplay to game conditions. Conclusions: While sport education has the capacity to develop competent players, different levels of teacher guidance and learners’ instructional responsibility are necessary when teaching tactics.     

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.     

Urban sportscapes: An environmental deterministic perspective on the management of youth sport participation

This paper examines sport participation from an environmental perspective by considering the dynamic role of the sportscape (built-form and supporting infrastructure) in enabling, facilitating and promoting youth sport participation. Complementing recent work by Wicker et al. (2013), we conduct a case study of the ‘geography of sport’ in the Greater Toronto Area. In the process we introduce the concept of facility ‘gravitas’ to capture the attractiveness or ‘magnetism’ of sportscape entities and thereby acknowledge the multifaceted sets of environmental factors (including the bricks-and-mortar of facilities and the supporting mechanisms such as transportation, coaches and clubs) that influence sport participation. The results demonstrate that the geography of sport is not only about where sport venue built-forms are located, but also what types of sport infrastructure are available. To develop a better understanding of sport participation it is important to assess the capacity and quality of the sportscape along with other supporting structures and facilitators. The paper points to the implications for managers and policy makers from this perspective.     

A case study of Twitter as a research tool

Abstract

This paper documents the process of utilizing Twitter for a doctoral dissertation in rugby governance, and highlights the key benefits of using Twitter as a research tool. Research followed a case study approach to delve into the four major uses of Twitter: (1) a warning system for dramas or incidents relating to one’s research field; (2) data collection; (3) finding and recruiting research subjects; and (4) building a personal research brand. The research design used a mixed method approach that combined qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. The findings serve as the basis for the pursuit of more detailed future research with Twitter as the principal medium in focus within the area of sport.     

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.     

From anti-doping to a ‘performance policy’ sport technology,being human,and doing ethics

Abstract

This paper discusses three questions concerning the ethics of performance enhancement in sport. The first has to do with the improvement to policy and argues that there is a need for policy about doping to be re-constituted and to question the conceptual priority of ‘anti’ doping. It is argued that policy discussions about science in sport must recognise the broader context of sport technology and seek to develop a policy about ‘performance’, rather than ‘doping’. The second argues that a quantitative enhancement to a sporting performance has no value and is, thus, unethical, unless the motivation behind using it implies something meaningful about being human. Thus, unless the use of the technology is constitutive of our humanness, then it is not a justifiable method of altering (rather than enhancing) performance. This rules out the legitimacy of using performance enhancement to gain an advantage over other competitors, who do not have access to similar means. Finally, the third argument claims that sport ethics has had only a limited discourse and has failed to recognise broader theoretical ideas in relation to performance modification, which might be found in the philosophy of technology and bioethics. Collectively, these positions articulate important concerns about the role of science in sport and the ethical discussions arising from them.     

Clifton Forge and Back Again

Abstract

Coming from small-town Appalachia, Josh Howard reflects on his career as a public historian with a focus on sport. He maps out his recent work at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Lamar University, and other sport history work in explaining a journey from a background in statistics to one in public sport history. He concludes by offering some suggestions to better develop scholarship on the intersection of public history and sport history specifically through partnerships with professional sport franchises.     

An Adapted Model of the Sport Participation Choice Process

Abstract

In a conceptual examination of sport participation, the concept of “sport careers” is introduced. Sport careers are defined as the modal patterns of temporally ordered sport roles current in a sport subculture as well as the sequence of sport roles individuals may perform over the course of their lifetimes. Treating sport participation as a career pattern (but not as an occupational pattern) can be seen to have numerous advantages, among them that the considerable literature of work careers can be brought to bear on problems of sport participation. A conceptual model of the career entry choice process created by Blau and others is presented and adapted to the parallel problem of the sport participation choice process.     

Migration,Knowledge Transfer,and the Emergence of Australian Post-War Skiing: The Story of Charles William Anton

Skiing underwent substantial changes during the post-war years when the sport turned into a multi-billion dollar industry and a leisure activity for the masses. Despite its global nature and popularity, skiing in academic writing has not gained much recognition. This paper explores the role of knowledge transfer during the pioneering phase of post-war skiing in Australia. It describes the life of Charles William Anton, an Austrian refugee from the Anschluss who migrated to Sydney and subsequently became one of the founding fathers of Australian post-war skiing. The following pages show the multi-layered nature of skiing as a global sport by exemplifying how ideas spread from pre-war Europe to post-war Australia. The paper will also provide a case study about refugee knowledge transfer and the ‘productive process of absorption, adoption or rejection of knowledge’ that takes place once an idea has been introduced into a new environment.     

‘Sport was the centre of my memories’: the performance of sport in Australia’s Asian garrisons

ABSTRACT

For better or worse, sport mirrors and mediates much of everyday life. Within both the military and colonial spheres, the physical attributes of sport are especially prized as tangible representations of social and cultural hierarchies. In turn, this further enhances the prestige and influence of sport within these two particular environments. Sport becomes particularly potent in instances where military forces undertake garrison duties in overseas colonial and post-colonial environs. This paper highlights the centrality of sport to the lives of the Australian service personnel and their families who were posted to Australia’s garrisons in the decades after World War II. The myriad roles of sport within these overseas garrison environments – as comforter, connector, healer and reinforcer on the one hand, and as isolator, oppressor and subverter on the other – are explored. This paper suggests that, for a variety of reasons, participation in sports served as the central organising force for most Australian service personnel and their families in these Australian military communities.     

Conceptions of Adolescent Friendship Quality in Sport and Music Domains

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purposes of the present study were to (a) compare context-specific conceptions of friendship quality in youth sport and music, and (b) determine how friendship quality is related to motivational beliefs in sport and music. Method: Adolescents (N = 366; M_age = 12.9, SD = 1.0) who were involved in both organized sport and music completed measures of domain-specific friendship quality, perceived competence, enjoyment, anxiety, and motivational orientation. Results: For purpose one, a repeated-measures MANOVA revealed that (a) boys and girls rated their best sport friends higher in self-esteem enhancement and supportiveness than their best music friends, (b) boys rated their best sport friends higher in loyalty and intimacy, things in common, companionship and pleasant play, and conflict resolution than their best music friends, (c) girls rated positive friendship quality dimensions higher than boys, and (d) there were no domain or gender differences in friendship conflict. For purpose two, structural equation modeling revealed that (a) for sport, positive friendship quality dimensions were directly associated with perceived competence and indirectly associated with enjoyment, anxiety, and motivational orientation, and (b) for music, positive friendship quality and friendship conflict were related to competence motivation variables. Conclusion: Collectively, findings indicate domain differences in friendship quality and the relationship between friendship quality and motivational outcomes in sport and music. Despite some domain differences, findings demonstrate the significance of friendship quality for adolescents involved in sport and music.     

Federal Government Involvement in Australian Disability Sport, 1981–2015

Abstract

Few historical accounts of Australian sport policy have explicitly profiled the federal government’s involvement in disability sport. In this paper, we draw on the concept of ableism as a lens to address this lacuna. In doing so, we profile the history of the Commonwealth government involvement in disability sport and explore how the policy of ‘mainstreaming’ has emerged through partnerships led by the Australian Paralympic Committee with National Sporting Originations (NSOs) and government. We highlight that whilst these changes have arguably made mainstream NSOs more aware of their legal obligations and have led to positive changes in the provision of opportunities for people with a disability through the development of ‘Paralympic pathways’, there is some evidence of potential caveats of ‘mainstreaming’. Specifically, we point to an emerging body of evidence which suggests that despite these policy measures, people with disabilities still report being marginalized and excluded from ‘mainstream’ sporting programmes. Therefore, we question if less governmental leadership is the right path given the limitations of the present policy framework. Additionally, we highlight how performance-based funding mechanisms such as ‘Winning Edge’ are narrowing who is eligible for funding and thus curtailing finite resources for only the most ‘abled’ of the disabled.     

Prospective study of sport dropout: A motivational analysis as a function of age and gender

Abstract

Introduction: This paper aimed to analyse the predictive ability of a self-determination theory (SDT) based model describing competitive sport dropout, and variance as a function of age and gender. Variables included in the model were: psychological need satisfaction, self-determined motivation, perceived conflict between sport and study, intention to practise sport, and dropout.

Methods: A prospective study was performed over a period of 19 months. Variables considered as predictors of sport dropout were measured initially, and after 19 months persistence or dropout was assessed. The sample consisted of 857 athletes aged 11–19 (mean value 15.3; standard deviation = 1.77), 680 males and 177 females.

Results: Structural equation modelling illustrated support for an “alternative” model that incorporated a direct relationship between psychological need satisfaction and intention to practise sport. Analysis of invariance showed that the model was consistent as a function of age and gender, i.e. no differences were found in regression weights. MANOVA, however, revealed some group differences with respect to the dependent variables. Specifically, in terms of engagement, although assessed at the start of the study, those athletes who persisted at 19 months demonstrated greater need satisfaction, self-determined motivation and intention to practise sport than those who dropped out. Age related differences were also identified: with increased age self-determined motivation and intention to practise sport decreased, while there were no differences in need satisfaction or perceived conflict between sport and study. There were no differences related to gender.

Discussion: The results support previous studies that had used SDT to predict sport dropout, specifically those that had reported an inverse relationship between self-determined motivation and perceived conflict between activities. Further, it suggests that other variables (emotional) may play a specific role in predicting intention to continue engagement with sport.

Conclusion: The major contribution of the study is in validating a motivational model predicting sport dropout which incorporates perceived conflict and the direct effect of psychological need satisfaction on the intention to practise sport. The invariance of regression weights between age and gender groups suggests that the relationships proposed in the model are universal.     

The effect of nostalgia on self-continuity,pride, and intention to visit a sport team's hometown

ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of the current study was to develop a theoretical model regarding nostalgia, self-continuity, pride, and the intention to visit a sport team's hometown and examine the moderating effect of length of time as a sport fan. The study involved showing a short nostalgic video clip and investigated relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multigroup SEM. The results suggest that self-continuity is an important indicator of the relationship between nostalgia and pride and enhances the intention to visit a sport team's hometown. The results also showed that self-continuity is an important indicator for new fans but not for long-term fans.     

An elite endurance athlete's recovery from underperformance aided by a multidisciplinary sport science support team

Abstract

Overload training resulting in an overreached state is common in elite sports, and if undetected can develop into an overtraining syndrome. This risk is accentuated by the lack of reliable measures of overreaching. Coaches and scientists therefore have to use a combination of tests in the monitoring process. This article presents a case study of the recovery from underperformance of a young elite endurance athlete and the work of a multidisciplinary sport science support team. When it was determined that the athlete's performance had deteriorated, and that this was due solely to the stress of training, training load was radically reduced for a period of 14 days. A combination of physiological, biochemical, and psychological measurements were then used to monitor the recovery process. The purpose of this article is to describe how coaches and sport science teams can help in monitoring training and recovery in practical settings, allowing detection of the early signs of overreaching before a more serious overtraining syndrome develops.     

Sport History Relevance and How We Need to Engage

Abstract

It is important to question the relevance of sport history and to recognize our failings and our successes if we are to ensure the genre develops and contributes to society. While sport historians recognize the value, outside of this sphere, it is apparent that the subject is not always recognized for its significance. In this paper, it is argued that sport historians have a responsibility to engage more with the media and the public, while seeking opportunities to collaborate with sports organizations to ensure the subject is relevant and can develop. It is also argued that minority groups are under-represented in the sport history community, arguing that it is incumbent upon sport historians to ensure greater engagement and promotion of these groups. The paper concludes by urging those engaged in sport history to promote the discipline and develop opportunities for others.     

‘If God Be for Us,Who Can Be Against Us?’: Religion and Religiousness in Polish Football, 2008–2017

Abstract

Relations between sport and religion constitute an intriguing field of research. The aim of this paper is to analyze the historical development of a religious face of Polish sport (mostly football). Religion – meaning here the Catholic Church, since Poland is an almost completely Catholic country – pervades sport in different ways. The teachings of Pope John Paul II, who appreciated the role of sport in developing the all-around integrated personality, are still often recalled in Poland. The paper includes several sections. First, the policy of the Church towards sport in the last decades is discussed; then, the question of sports chaplaincy in Poland is presented. Next, public manifestations of religious beliefs of football players, managers, and fans (for example, crossing oneself or fans’ choreographies with religious overtones) are analyzed. The main focus of interest is, however, very popular religious pilgrimages organized (since 2008) by the fans of most Polish clubs. The main objective is to examine some selected cases, representative of Polish football fandom of the last decades, showing the phenomenon clearly. The study has largely been based on historical and statistical data. The information about this period (2008–2017) was garnered mainly from newspapers and fans’ publications.