The purpose of sport: perspectives of players, coaches, parents, and administrators

ABSTRACT

Research question: How do stakeholders in a school community sport program view the purpose of sport?

Research methods: Participants (n=61) in a community school sport program included administrators, coaches, student-athletes, students who do not participate in sports, and parents of athletes. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted, and data were analyzed using a modified thematic analysis approach.

Results and Findings: Results indicate that stakeholders believe that the purpose of sport includes character building, life management skills, learning to compete, skill development, and social goals. Character building can be further divided into self-discipline and grit, and social goals were further divided into friendships, bonding, and teamwork.

Implications: Finding suggests overlap with Lerner’s (2007. The good teen: Rescuing adolescence from the myths and storm and stress years. The Stenesong Press) 5 Cs of PYD and life skills assessments. Organizations may wish to consider approaching evaluations through both stakeholder-identified outcomes and theory identified outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive youth development
• developmental assets
• life skills
• character
• community sport development

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The one exception to this participation model was the girl’s varsity softball team which was very competitive, and the only team to regular “cut” players.

2 In the U.S. context, athletics is used to indicate all sport activities, and not just track and field. As this was the term that many of our participants used, we have chosen to use it throughout the manuscript to indicate all sport activities.

3 A quinceñera is a girl’s 15th birthday party and is widely celebrated in Spanish and Latin American cultures.