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The academic literature reports mixed evidence on how social media platform and message impact consumer engagement. We investigated the effects of three platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and three message themes (sales, informational, and relationship building) on six consumer engagement actions (comment, like, search, share, talk about, and purchase) in a lab experiment. College students responded to social media posts featuring their National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I women’s basketball team. Results for platform show that participants were more likely to comment on Facebook and Twitter (vs. Instagram) and more likely to purchase on Twitter (vs. Instagram). Results for message theme show that participants were more likely to comment, like, and share informational and relationship building posts and more likely to purchase after sales posts. Results for message theme vary by gender for search and talk about (with others). These results can help sport marketers develop social media content that drives specific engagement actions.

This scoping review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of physical education (PE) literature related to bullying. The review was outlined and guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. All English-language articles published in peer-reviewed journals that focused on bullying and PE were included. Thematic analysis was used to summarize data extracted from the selected literature. In total, 43 articles conducted in 16 countries were included in this scoping review. Results identified individual-, peer-, school-, and family-level factors that trigger bullying in PE. The impacts of bullying in PE, antibullying strategies and interventions, and summary of future study directions are also discussed. Results from the study highlighted the importance of adopting social ecological perspectives to address bullying behavior and guide antibullying interventions in PE. Physical activities that can potentially promote children’s social emotional learning are also needed to reduce and prevent bullying in PE.

This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of biological mechanisms underlying the menstrual cycle’s impact on various performance-determining anatomical and physiological parameters. It is intended to identify the various proposed vital concepts and theories that may explain performance changes following hormonal fluctuations. The review was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews protocol. A framework of six groups was built such as skeletal muscle physiology, muscle damage, tendons and ligaments, neuromuscular control, cardiovascular system, and exercise metabolism to cluster studies thematically and to specify the concept of “performance.” Original research studies published between 1970 and 2021 that were conducted with a naturally menstruating population were considered. Changes in performance regarding the menstrual cycle phase were crucial for inclusion. Topic-specific reviews and systematic reviews were included if they addressed the impact of female steroid hormones on any structure or part of the human body. The review indicates that the impact of estrogen and progesterone is primarily responsible for observed changes in athletic performance during the menstrual cycle. Estrogen seems capable of fostering protein synthesis, diminishing collagen metabolism, preventing muscle damage due to its antioxidant effects, and restraining inhibitory, while promoting excitatory, control by interacting with neurotransmitters. Progesterone is assumed to increase thermoregulation and enhance ventilatory drive by interacting with hypothalamic pathways and may further amplify inhibitory control by interacting with neurotransmitters. The female steroid hormones and the endocrinologic system collaborate in complex interrelationships with biological systems to maintain homeostasis. However, proposed mechanisms are often derived from animal studies and studies conducted in vitro and still remain to be proven true in the human regularly menstruating population. In the future, it is crucial to rely on studies that followed the methodology for cycle monitoring recommendations thoroughly. Otherwise, it is not possible to determine whether hormonal fluctuations cause observed changes in performance or not.

This study aims to increase the effective use of in-stadium sponsor message placement by analyzing the influence of various run-of-play characteristics on television viewers’ visual attention allocation. Sports broadcasts constitute one potential platform for sponsors to place personalized messages. However, literature still questions the effectiveness of in-stadium sponsor messages, and the influence of game-related factors on viewers’ visual attention has received little consideration in this context. In addition, researchers call for more reliable and realistic measures concerning the effective evaluation of sponsorship-linked marketing. Therefore, this study uses real-time adaptions (eye-tracking, in-play betting odds, etc.) utilizing live soccer broadcasts as one of the first. Data were analyzed second by second (n = 100,298) using generalized linear mixed models. Results indicate significant associations of several run-of-play characteristics with viewers’ visual attention to sponsor messages depending on the characteristic, the games’ degree of suspense, and playing time. Findings provide hands-on advice for practitioners to enhance sponsor message placement during live broadcasts.

Uses and gratifications theory has often been used in (sport) communication studies to examine social media usage. Yet, criticisms of uses and gratifications theory (e.g., it overstates purposefulness) and competing research suggesting media use is more habitual and unconscious in nature have often been overlooked. Thus, through semistructured interviews, this research explored how social media is used, identifying five themes: passively, distinctly, periodically, habitually, and universally. Theoretically, this research contributes by highlighting the passive, habitual, and unconscious nature of some sport social media behavior, thereby challenging our current assumptions that sport social media usage is always active, purposeful, and goal directed. It also considers the uniqueness (or lack thereof) of sport content within the social media experience. Managerially, this research helps sport organizations understand how consumers use social media to inform marketing and communication strategies.

This article is based on the 2022 Earle F. Zeigler Lecture Award that I presented in Atlanta, Georgia. For this paper, I reflect upon my career as a qualitative sport management researcher, with a specific focus on the mistakes I have made. I have two objectives with this paper. One objective is to advocate for continued learning about and rethinking how we conduct qualitative research. The second objective is to highlight ways in which we, as a field, can improve our qualitative research literacy. In the paper, I discuss eight learnings on the topics of ontologies and epistemologies, research designs, themes, pseudonyms, rigor, generalizability, positionality, and the publisher SAGE. In learning from my mistakes, we can be better consumers, producers, and evaluators of qualitative research.

In the youth sports domain, few coaches are women, masculine ideologies permeate the culture, and coaching practices do not always align with behaviors supportive of positive youth sports experience. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in men’s and women’s coaching behaviors associated with creating positive youth sports experience, including behaviors that create a safe and fun participation environment, a mastery motivational climate, and autonomy-supportive coaching. A total of 219 youth and high school coaches across different sports in one county in a western state responded to the survey—29% of them women. Along with the overall dearth of women in coaching, we found differences between men and women in the types of coaching positions they hold and the behaviors they bring to their coaching. Female coaches were more likely to be paid, primarily part-time, and they were also less likely to have children. Using a multivariate analysis of variance, significant mean vectors were found between female and male coaches in the four coaching behaviors measured. Women’s ratings were significantly higher on individual measures for autonomy and safety. As the coaching field comes to better understand the approaches that lead to positive youth sports experience, these findings raise important questions about why women and mothers are not a larger proportion of the coaching landscape and how that might change.