Developing sports with a children’s rights perspective? Intentions, methods, and priorities of development projects in local Swedish sports clubs

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the planned development of sport practice regarding children’s rights through project applications from Swedish sports clubs within the Lift for Sport programme. The study on which this paper reports uses data from a large-scale research project that evaluated this sport-for-all programme and is based on an analysis of 2563 applications within five different national sports organizations. Theoretically, the evaluation study draws on programme theories and analyses financially funded development applications made by the sports clubs. The proportion of applications concerning aspects of children’s rights was 2.4% within the following categories: children’s safety in sports, young people’s views, ethics of children’s sports, and prevention of exclusion and dropout from sport. Those applications were further examined regarding which intentions, methods, and priorities sports clubs were aiming to develop children’s sport to be in line with a children’s rights perspective. The methods used to reach the goals were sometimes the same regardless of intention, and, despite the good intentions and some creative methods used for development, applicants seemed to be uncertain about and searching for which relevant methods to use. The findings can be used to inform the discussion on the design of development programmes, policies, and practices to change children’s sport in the framework of children’s rights.

Keywords:

• Children’s rights
• development
• human rights
• sport policy
• UNCRC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This research was funded by the Swedish Sports Confederation, and financial support for publication was received from Umeå School of Sport Sciences, Umeå University.

Notes on contributors

Inger Eliasson is an assistant professor at the Department of Education, Umeå University, Sweden. She specialises in research about children?s sport and is currently involved in research project related to adjustment of sport to children, emotional abuse in children?s sport and children?s process of disengagement from sport.

Staffan Karp is associate professor at the Department of Education, Umeå University in Sweden. His main research interests are the meaning of sport both from an individual and societal perspective but also the processes of inertia and change in sports systems.

Kim Wickman is associate professor at the Department of Education, Umeå University in Sweden. Her main research interests are in sport, gender and ability/disability.