Browsing by Subject "Youth Sport"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Athlete perceptions and consequences of parental background anger in youth ice hockey
    (2012-05) Winges, James Brian
    One of the largest problems within the landscape of youth ice hockey is poor parental behavior. It is not uncommon to witness parents yelling and engaging in harassment and arguments with referees, coaches, other parents and players. Occasionally, physical fights between parents and/or coaches occur as well as parents yelling at their own and other kids. From the perspective of the observer these behaviors constitute background anger. Background anger as a construct within sport is defined as "the presence of verbal, nonverbal, or physical conflict between individuals that does not directly involve the observer" (Cummings & Cummings, 1988; Omli & LaVoi, 2009, p. 244). While it is suspected that background anger may promote stress in youth sport participants, little research has been conducted to directly assess its effects (Omli, LaVoi, & Wiese-Bjornstal, 2008; Omli & LaVoi, 2009). The purpose of this project was to assess the perceptions and consequences of parental background anger in youth ice hockey from the players' perspective utilizing the background anger framework of Cummings and Cummings (1988). Two studies were conducted to assess player perceptions of parental background anger. The first utilized a mixed methods design to examine youth perceptions and emotional responses associated with angry dad, angry mom, and fighting dads types of background anger. Participants were adolescent ice hockey players (94 male & 99 female). Players were sampled from USA Hockey's Advance 15 camps who were all born in 1994; making them 15 years old at the time of the study. Exact age was not taken because of the homogeneity of the sample. The Advance 15 camps represent the 102 best male and 102 best female players in the state and are tryout-based camps. Players were asked about experienced situations that were similar to one of three pictures, each depicting a different parental background anger type. Results indicated that female players perceived significantly more background anger in their games than did their male peers regardless of background anger type. Females also responded to background anger with significantly lower confidence and encouragement and greater frustration than their male peers. The angry dad background anger type created significantly greater frustration and lesser encouragement than the fighting dads background anger type, regardless of gender. Player responses indicated that the different types of background anger have different primary causes. These causes included parent behavior, referee call, player behavior, parent personality, player performance and coach behavior. The second study utilized a before and after quantitative design to assess player perceptions of and consequences to parental background anger. One hundred and thirteen Bantam male and 124 U14 female Minnesota Hockey players were sampled such that player perceptions of the normal game experience were compared to those of an experienced event where one of three types of parental background anger occurred. Results indicated that when background anger occurs there are significant detrimental changes to player emotions, performance, fun, and intensity. All of these changes were contrary to the desired outcomes of a youth sport experience. Females and males responded similarly but with different magnitude to background anger, such that females experienced greater detrimental changes in emotions, performance, and fun than males. Males experienced a greater detrimental change in intensity than did females. Female and male players perceived the causes of background anger similarly and results suggest that the different background anger types have significantly different causes. Overall these studies support the contention that parental background anger is detrimental to the health and well-being of youth ice hockey players. Results lend support to the use of the Cummings and Cummings (1988) model of background anger in the home and the use of this model in sport (Omli et al., 2008; Omli & LaVoi, 2009) as well as the new model of background anger in sport (LaVoi, Omli, & Wiese-Bjornstal, 2012). If parents continue to engage in the creation of background anger, their children will feel worse, play worse, have less fun, and play with less intensity. Downstream this could have negative effects on participation, skill development, and advancement in the sport.
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    Conceptions of Adolescent Friendship Quality in Sport and Music Domains
    (2015-08) Phillips, Alison
    Based on theory (Harter, 1978; Sullivan, 1953), 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. Adolescents (N = 366; Mage = 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. 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 perceived 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 conflict were related to competence motivation variables. Gender moderator analyses revealed slight differences between boys and girls in the pattern of relationships between friendship quality and competence motivation variables in sport and music. Collectively, findings extend the knowledge base by (a) using theoretical frameworks to compare conceptions of friendship quality in two popular extracurricular activities for youth, and (b) demonstrating the significance of friendship quality in motivational beliefs and orientations in sport and music.
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    Understanding an Action Research Process in a Youth Sport Organization
    (2021-07) Okamoto, Katlin
    Youth sport is often considered a setting for ‘youth development’ and for young people to acquire ‘life skills’. In shifting from a sole focus on physical fitness and sporting competence to a more complex understanding of young person and ‘life skills’, the coach becomes a youth worker. Yet, to claim that youth sport can play a role in youth development is complex and dependent on the theoretical and practical chosen frames of youth development and their corresponding goals and values. When ‘life skills’ are presumed to be acquired- these too have social meaning- they are often done within an adolescent and/or ‘positive youth development’ frame and are obtained inequitably across age, social class, ethnicity, gender, geography, and the like. This suggests existing understandings of ‘youth development’ and ‘life skills’ in youth sport are narrow and inadequate, in social terms and of themselves, without full recognition of social class, ethnicity, gender, and other social demographics. Thus, an opportunity to expand the embodied meanings of ‘youth development’, and what outcomes are desired, in youth sport exists- both those of adults and those of youth players. One possible approach is through democratic process embedded in a civic youth work orientation and potentially overlapping classic youth coaching strategies and carried out through an action research process, one more common in other areas of education practice.This dissertation sought to understand action research as an individual, team, programmatic, and organizational change process in a youth sport organization in an upper-middle class, suburban, Midwest community. To do this, an action research project was developed, implemented, and assessed in a new youth soccer club. The study had two levels- the action research project focused on exploring the core values with youth players (Level I), and a self-reflection on the process of doing action research (Level II). The project consisted of twenty four, one-hour sessions with ~ twenty eight youth- boys and girls from two soccer teams- a co-facilitator, and myself. The project took place over a period of five months and was informed by community youth development and social justice youth development theories, a civic youth work orientation, and the researcher’s expertise as a licensed soccer coach. Data were collected before, during, and after the project in the form of interviews, field notes, observations, artefacts, documentation, a learning journal, archival records, and dialog with ‘critical friends’ and were analyzed for qualitative themes. Several findings emerged at Level I and Level II of the study. Youth players shared a commitment to and were able to live out the soccer club’s core values (teamwork, respect, leadership, ownership) in their everyday soccer lives, and sometimes in other youth life realms, and enjoyed the experience. Parents and club directors expressed their satisfaction with the project. I learned about my ability to create a democratic youth work space in a youth sport organization (Level I) within my coach training and also with the young people and with my co-facilitator. The action research project showed itself as possible in the youth sport club and trust and relationship building emerged as essential to the project’s start, implementation, and completion in the youth sport organization. These findings suggest youth sport can be amenable to a civic youth work practice and a democratic process is possible in U.S. youth sport clubs, albeit with difficulty, patience, skill, and fortuitous conditions. This study has implications for exploring youth sport as a place for youth work and it provides evidence of specific “life skills” that can be achieved through such practice. For those youth workers who utilize theories of community youth development or social justice youth development, or for social workers who identify as youth and community workers, these findings can be read to encourage further consideration of the ways economic inequality influences outcomes and opportunities and/or the way that cultural differences may alter taken-for-granted values and practices. Finally, this study can inform youth sport policy to better align with desired coaching practices, and for action research as a coach development process within sport. However, given the realities of the club and the youth and families included in this study, it is vital that civic youth development work also be undertaken with young people, families, and communities from a wider array of social class, ethic/racial background, and geographic communities in order to understand the cultural and social contexts of such goals and practices. My professional development brought into personal tension the differences, as well as similarities, between my coaching training, orientation, and practice and that school of youth work called community youth work. This should be explored more deeply across social class, gender, ethnicity/race, and geographic spaces. Keywords: Youth sport, youth work, action research, social work