Food Culture in Youth Athletics: Exploration of the Beliefs in USA Stakeholders

Objectives. The present study examined beliefs surrounding food culture in youth athletics. Design. Qualitative research. Methods. Coaches (n = 62), parents (n = 161), and youth athletes (n = 40) in the USA completed questionnaires that explored aspects of the food environment of youth athletics, including practices related to food and beverage consumption and perspectives on the nutritional value of available foods and beverages. Results. Coaches, parents, and athletes all reported a high number of available foods and beverages, and were mixed both about whether these were healthy or unhealthy, and whether the availability of unhealthy foods and beverages was problematic. Conclusions. This study aimed to add to the literature an examination of multiple perspectives on the current food culture in youth athletics. Participant perspectives suggest that the food environment of youth sport may be an unhealthy mismatch with the physical, social, and psychological benefits of participation. Further research could aim to identify optimal environments for promoting health in youth sport. Limitations and additional directions for future research are discussed.

Motivation Differences between Youth Single-Sport, Multi-Sport, and Single-Sport Specialized Athletes in the Western United States

The motivation for youth sport involvement may differ for single-sport (non-specialists), multi-sport, and single-sport specialized athletes. To investigate differences between adolescent single-sport athletes (NSSA), multi-sport athletes (MSA), and single-sport specialized athletes (SSSA) on measures of sport enjoyment and motivation. A secondary aim was to compare these variables between age groups. Adolescent sport participants in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade from the Western United States (n=306, age=13.0±1.0 yrs) completing the Sources of Enjoyment in Youth Sport Questionnaire (SEYSQ) that assesses sport enjoyment in the subscales of self-referenced competency (SRC), other-referenced competency and recognition (ORCR), effort expenditure (EE), competitive excitement (CE), affiliation with peers (AP), and positive parental involvement (PPI). The participants also reported their age, gender, grade, years of sport participation and sport status (NSSA, MSA, SSSA). SSSA reported significantly more enjoyment in all subscales except PPI when compared to NSSA (p<0.05; ES 0.4 – 0.99). MSA and SSSA showed significant differences in the subscales of SRC and EE; however, effect size was small (0.37 and 0.33, respectively). Overall scores for intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were significantly lower among NSSA compared to MSA and SSSA (p<0.01) with no differences between MSA and SSSA (p>0.05). Results revealed no significant differences in the SEYSQ’s subscales for age (p>0.05). Within the parameters of this study, adolescents that specialize in a single sport or those who compete in multiple sport both rely on intrinsic and extrinsic sources of enjoyment for motivation in very similar ways; whereas adolescent NSSA are less motivated and experience less enjoyment from sport participation compared to MSA and SSSA. Keywords: adolescent, enjoyment, SEYSQ, motivation, sport psychology

Write It Out: Examining Recreational Youth Sport Parent Emotions Through an Expressive Writing Exercise

Youth sport parents experience an array of emotions as part of their child’s youth sport experience. This may include emotions related to watching their child play, supporting their child’s emotions, or simply related to daily parenting responsibilities. This research examined youth sport parent emotions through an expressive writing exercise. Twelve parents completed a total of 32 expressive writing exercises. In each exercise, parents were asked to write about their emotions as a youth sport parent. Quantitative analysis with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015) software and qualitative thematic analysis were employed to analyze writings. Results indicate that though parents experienced both positive and negative emotions, negative emotions were most common and salient. Thematic analysis resulted in six themes, including one theme related to positive emotions (happiness for child experience), and five themes related to negative emotions: 1) general stress and negativity, 2) responsibilities, 3) role as parent, 4) coach, and 5) performance. Results also lead to practical implications for park and recreation administrators. First, as substantial stress is related to the time and financial responsibilities associated with sport parenting, organizations may wish to seek ways to support parents including through scholarship funds, and facilitating communication and duty sharing among parents. Parent education programs may also be a way to help parents navigate their own emotions related to parenting roles. Coaches were also a source of negative emotions for parents, though not always for the same reasons. Youth sport organizations can facilitate coach-parent communication to ensure that parent-coach goals are aligned, and provide training for coaches in both sport-specific skills and positive youth development. In addition to facilitating coach-parent communication, organizations may also encourage child-parent communication related to goals. This could include email communications with exercises designed to encourage specific conversations about goals of youth sport participation. Each of these implications is tied directly to negative emotions expressed by parents as part of this research. Assisting parents with these emotions will improve the experience for both the parent and will likely enable the youth participant to have a more positive experience as well.

Changes in Drop Out Intentions: Implications of the Motivational Climate, Goal Orientations and Aspects of Self-Worth across a Youth Sport Season

The main objective of this work was to study the motivational antecedents of the intention to drop out of youth sport from the postulates of the achievement goal theory (AGT), placing special emphasis on the motivational climate that coaches create in their teams. Specifically, we analyzed whether changes in the perception of the motivational climate between the beginning and the end of the season predicted changes in players’ goal orientations, whether these, in turn, predicted changes in self-esteem and contingent self-esteem, and finally, whether the latter predicted the intention to drop out. Participants in the study were 552 players (Mage = 11.23, SD = 1.14), who completed the questionnaires at the beginning and at the end of the season. The results of the longitudinal structural model presented acceptable goodness-of-fit indices and the relationships were significant in the expected direction according to the postulates of the AGT. This research provides evidence that AGT is a relevant theoretical model for the study of drop out in sport.

Preventing sexual violence in sport: the determinants of positive coach-bystanding behavior

Coaches are instrumental in creating safe sport environments, especially in preventing sexual violence, but little is known about helpful bystander behaviors, hampering effective prevention programs. To identify determining characteristics of positive bystander behavior, 1442 Belgian youth-sport coaches completed a dedicated online questionnaire on bystander-related attitudes, descriptive and injunctive norms, autonomy beliefs, and self-efficacy using two hypothetical sport-associated sexual-violence scenarios. Potential for change was analyzed using confidence interval-based estimation of relevance (CIBER). 127 coaches (9.6%) had witnessed sexual violence over the past year. Most had intervened (single incident: 3.7%; multiple incidents: 2.4%). Experiential attitude expectation, instrumental attitude evaluation, perceived referent behavior and approval, and subskill presence were positively associated with coaches’ intentions to intervene. Of the determinants of positive coach-bystander behavior, attitude and perceived norms proved key constituents for programs addressing sexual violence in youth sport. To promote (pro-)active coach-bystander behaviors, the results are discussed from a theoretical and practice-oriented perspective.

Preventing sexual violence in sport. The determinants of positive coach-bystander behavior.

Coaches are instrumental in creating safe sport environments, especially in preventing sexual violence, but little is known about helpful bystander behaviors, hampering effective prevention programs. To identify determining characteristics of positive bystander behavior, 1442 Belgian youth-sport coaches completed a dedicated online questionnaire on bystander-related attitudes, descriptive and injunctive norms, autonomy beliefs, and self-efficacy using two hypothetical sport-associated sexual-violence scenarios. Potential for change was analyzed using confidence interval-based estimation of relevance (CIBER). 127 coaches (9.6%) had witnessed sexual violence over the past year. Most had intervened (single incident: 3.7%; multiple incidents: 2.4%). Experiential attitude expectation, instrumental attitude evaluation, perceived referent behavior and approval, and subskill presence were positively associated with coaches’ intentions to intervene. Of the determinants of positive coach-bystander behavior, attitude and perceived norms proved key constituents for programs addressing sexual violence in youth sport. To promote (pro-)active coach-bystander behaviors, the results are discussed from a theoretical and practice-oriented perspective.