push came to shove, and the referee was out of position and should have been watching the line, the athlete just said, “Hey sir, the ball went into the goal.” (U13 boys soccer coach) Above is the type of anecdote not often highlighted by youth sport coaches. Because stories within the mainstream media
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Terilyn C. Shigeno, E. Earlynn Lauer, Leslee A. Fisher, Emily J. Johnson, and Rebecca A. Zakrajsek
Julie Legg, Ryan Snelgrove, and Laura Wood
The purpose of this study was to examine the process of change at the level of youth sport by identifying the impetus for change, responses to change by stakeholders, and factors that constrained or aided the change process. Theoretically, this study builds upon an existing integrative change model. The context of this research is two youth soccer associations in Ontario, Canada, undergoing a long-term structural redesign mandated by the provincial soccer association. Stakeholders from local soccer clubs, as well as the Ontario Soccer Association (N = 20), identified key factors influencing the implementation and success of change. Pressures to change and individual efforts made by board members, coaches, and parents were noted as aiding the change process. Limited collaboration with stakeholders, poor communication, misunderstandings of the change, and constrained organizational capacity negatively affected the change process.
Maureen R. Weiss and Alan L. Smith
The role of peers has been neglected in research on youth psychosocial development in sport. The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a measure of youth sport friendship quality for the purpose of facilitating such research. Dimensions and higher order themes found in Weiss, Smith, and Theeboom’s (1996) qualitative study of sport friendships among children and adolescents, as well as a core set of items from previous research (Parker & Asher, 1993), were used to develop and refine items for a sport friendship quality scale. Over the course of three studies, content, factorial, and construct validity, as well as internal consistency and test-retest reliability, were demonstrated for the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (SFQS). Future research is recommended to examine the role of children’s sport friendship quality on psychosocial development in the physical domain.
Mark Eys, Todd Loughead, Steven R. Bray, and Albert V. Carron
The purpose of the current study was to initiate the development of a psychometrically sound measure of cohesion for youth sport groups. A series of projects were undertaken in a four-phase research program. The initial phase was designed to garner an understanding of how youth sport group members perceived the concept of cohesion through focus groups (n = 56), open-ended questionnaires (n = 280), and a literature review. In Phase 2, information from the initial projects was used in the development of 142 potential items and content validity was assessed. In Phase 3, 227 participants completed a revised 87-item questionnaire. Principal components analyses further reduced the number of items to 17 and suggested a two-factor structure (i.e., task and social cohesion dimensions). Finally, support for the factorial validity of the resultant questionnaire was provided through confirmatory factor analyses with an independent sample (n = 352) in Phase 4. The final version of the questionnaire contains 16 items that assess task and social cohesion in addition to 2 negatively worded spurious items. Specific issues related to assessing youth perceptions of cohesion are discussed and future research directions are suggested.
Karin A. Pfeiffer and Michael J. Wierenga
reason is that reports indicate that a large proportion of children and adolescents play sports. Tremblay et al. ( 2016 ) noted that, worldwide, approximately half of children participate in at least one organized youth sport, but estimates vary by country. Pate et al. determined that approximately 70
Camilla J. Knight
involved in youth sport, youth sport researchers have given considerable attention to developing an evidence base pertaining to sport parenting ( Holt & Knight, 2014 ). Researchers and practitioners are increasingly working with sport organizations, coaches, and parents themselves to promote high
Daniel Gould
Sport is an incredibly popular activity for children and adolescents. Millions of youth are involved in sport ( National Council of Youth Sports, 2008 ). For example, 60 million young people in the United States age 6–18 years participate in some form of organized youth sport, with 44 million
Dawn Anderson-Butcher
The potential for youth sport to promote positive youth outcomes is vast, as 50% of children and youth participate in organized sport around the world ( Hulteen et al., 2017 ). Indeed, research demonstrates the role of youth sport in promoting health and mental health outcomes, as well as in
Sally A.M. Fenton, Joan L. Duda, and Timothy Barrett
The aims of this study were (1) to determine minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (PA) and vigorous PA accrued in youth sport football (also internationally referred to as soccer), and the contribution toward daily weekend moderate-to-vigorous PA and vigorous PA for males aged 9-16 years, and (2) to investigate variability in these outcomes related to age and playing position. One hundred and nine male grassroots footballers (Mean age = 11.98 ± 1.75 years) wore a GT3x accelerometer for 7 days. Weekend youth sport football participation and playing position were recorded. Youth sport football moderate-to-vigorous PA (M = 51.51 ± 17.99) and vigorous PA (M = 27.78 ± 14.55) contributed 60.27% and 70.68% toward daily weekend moderate-to-vigorous PA and vigorous PA, respectively. Overall, 36.70% of participants accumulated ≥60 min moderate-to-vigorous PA and 69.70% accrued < 20 min of vigorous PA during youth sport. For participants aged 13 to16 years, youth sport football moderate-to-vigorous PA and vigorous PA were significantly higher, and contributed a greater amount toward daily weekend moderate-to-vigorous PA and vigorous PA than for participants aged 9-12 years (p = >.01). Youth sport football is an important source of moderate-to-vigorous PA and vigorous PA at the weekend for male youth, and particularly for adolescents. Participation may offer opportunity for weekend engagement in vigorous PA toward health enhancing levels.
Alan L. Smith, Karl Erickson, and Leapetswe Malete
Extensive participation of young people in organized sport makes youth sport a ubiquitous and important developmental context with significant implications for health and well-being ( Brustad, Babkes, & Smith, 2001 ; Brustad, Vilhjalmsson, & Fonseca, 2008 ; Holt, 2016 ). Aside from school, there
