The logic behind the initiatives of national governing bodies in Flanders to improve organised youth sport: A theory-based evaluation approach

ABSTRACT

Regular involvement in organised youth sport boosts the likelihood of lifelong sport participation. However, increasing dropout rates in sport clubs and alarming levels of young people not meeting physical activity guidelines may suggest that the organised sport sector’s efforts have been insufficient to date. This situation calls for evaluation of the applicable youth sport policy to determine how organised youth sport is intended to operate and to articulate whether and how the policy achieves its stated goals. Accordingly, this paper identifies and analyses initiatives of national governing bodies (NGBs) to increase participation rates and improve the quality of youth sport in their affiliated sport clubs, using Flanders as a case study. A theory-based evaluation was applied working with qualitative data derived from extensive document analysis and five focus groups with representatives of 19 Flemish NGBs. The results reveal that the focus of NGBs is narrowed to increasing participation rates of youth members and building a sound organisational structure in sport clubs, rather than investing in the quality of provision to maximise enjoyment. Furthermore, most of the initiatives lack a clearly articulated strategy and are based on assumed mechanisms, rather than on prior understanding of effective processes. This study adds to the scarce literature on sport policy evaluation research by mapping out NGBs’ youth sport initiatives and using a theoretical lens through which to evaluate them. For practitioners, the results demonstrate the usefulness of a logic model to evaluate youth sport policy and to optimise the effectiveness of the initiatives employed.

KEYWORDS:

• Quality
• organised youth sport
• sport policy
• theory-based evaluation
• logic model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Belgium is a federal state with three communities. Legislation by the central parliament is called ‘laws’ and legislation by the Flemish parliament is called ‘decree’. Because Flanders has full responsibility for sport in their community, all legislation concerning sport is provided in decrees.

2. The Panathlon Declaration in Flanders is a declaration that NGBs can sign to commit themselves to record clear rules of conduct in the pursuit of positive values in youth sport http://panathlonvlaanderen.be.

3. Parantee – Psylos offers sport for people with a physical, psychological, intellectual, auditory, or visual disability.

4. The Flemish Rescue federation is an NGB to educate lifesavers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Vlaamse regering [Policy Research Centre on Sport (OPS) 2017-2022].