Mapping Out Your Success: Using Mind Maps to Evaluate Youth Development Programs

A primary component of any youth program is documenting and promoting the results through evaluation. Frequently, however, administrators in youth development programs struggle to find meaningful ways of evaluating the impacts they have on the lives of youth. It is often difficult to capture the unique benefits these programs offer to participants, especially when traditional methods such as focus groups and interviews may be too time consuming and questionnaires may yield poor response rates. This article presents a creative form of evaluation targeted at demonstrating the success of programs in outcomes that are historically more difficult to measure. A “mind map” is designed to be a pictorial representation of the impact of programs in areas such as connections to community organization and adult role models. Employing this technique can enable administrators in youth development programs to demonstrate to stakeholders the benefits they provide in a non-traditional, but highly effective, way

Choosing Sport Management as a College Major

The purpose of this study was to better understand sport management students within departments of parks, recreation, and tourism, and to address the often uneasy fit faculty experience when trying to educate sport and recreation students in the same classes. Researchers sent a 16-item online questionnaire to 1,337 undergraduate sport management majors at seven universities offering sport management as an emphasis within a department of parks, recreation, and tourism. Results yielded a 32% response rate, and indicated many similarities among the seven universities. The results also provided guidance for addressing the challenges faced by parks, recreation, and tourism educators when teaching students who identify with sport rather than recreation, and who are highly focused on a career in sport. The article concludes with implications for advising, curriculum planning, and employment potential

Effect of staged practices and motivational climate on goal orientation and sportsmanship in community youth sport experiences

Significant acts of poor sportsmanship and aggression are becoming increasingly prevalent in youth sports. Youth who have negative experiences as a result of witnessing or being directly involved in such poor sportsmanship experiences are less likely to participate in future sport activities, thereby contributing to sedentary lifestyles and a number of health related problems. Goal orientation theory provides a basis for understanding why many of these unsporting acts may occur. “Task-oriented” participants focus on their intra-individual growth and development in sports and tend to be much less involved in aggression and poor sportsmanship. In contrast, “Egooriented” participants judge success in terms of displays of superiority over opponents, frequently giving rise to incidents of aggression and poor sportsmanship. This paper describes a study that evaluated the effects of specially designed (“staged”) practice sessions during a youth basketball program on development of task orientation among youth participants. Participants were registered for a youth basketball league that included 12 weekly practices and 8 games. Two teams took part in the league without any intervention on the part of researchers while two additional teams engaged in practices specifically designed to promote task-orientation in the young athletes. Measures of motivational climate, task- and ego-orientation, and sportsmanship were collected near the end of each practice. Results support the position that a task orientated motivational climate during practice sessions facilitates development of sportsmanship attitudes in youth basketball players. Professionals in the parks, recreation, and tourism field can use these results in a multitude of ways. Creating mastery motivational climates within youth sport programs through the use of simple techniques could help practitioners promote individual task-orientation as well as sportsmanship among players, particularly if done over an extended period of time. Promoting individual goal achievement, skill clinics, and increased practice time are all relatively inexpensive and easy additions to current programs that could be employed by administrators to heighten the focus on individual improvement. Practitioners should also be careful to minimize the exposure of participants to environments that promote an ego orientation by limiting elimination tournaments, win/loss records, and other aspects of programs that focus on comparative success

SCHOLE: A JOURNAL OF LEISURE STUDIES AND RECREATION EDUCATION Choosing Sport Management as a College Major

Abstract The purpose of this study was to better understand sport management students within departments of parks, recreation, and tourism, and to address the often uneasy fit faculty experience when trying to educate sport and recreation students in the same classes. Researchers sent a 16-item online questionnaire to 1,337 undergraduate sport management majors at seven universities offering sport management as an emphasis within a department of parks, recreation, and tourism. Results yielded a 32% response rate, and indicated many similarities among the seven universities. The results also provided guidance for addressing the challenges faced by parks, recreation, and tourism educators when teaching students who identify with sport rather than recreation, and who are highly focused on a career in sport. The article concludes with implications for advising, curriculum planning, and employment potential

Good (youth) sports: Using benefits-based programming to increase sportsmanship

Sportsmanship problems in youth sport have recently become a more prominent issue for parks and recreation professionals. Benefits-based programming is one method these professionals could use to address the issues of sportsmanship in their youth leagues. Recent studies and programs have successfully employed prosocial behavior techniques in this process as a means of improving the sportsmanship atmosphere in youth leagues. Previous research, however, has yet to compare the efficacy of such programs in comparison to a control group. Data for this study were gathered through observations of positive and negative sportsmanship behaviors youth basketball games at two local community centers. Three specific groups were involved: A control group (in which no intervention took place); PHPFPF only (in which prosocial behavior techniques were employed); and PHPFPF + refs (in which prosocial behavior techniques were employed along with referees trained in prosocial behavior). All games involved third through sixth graders and observations included players, coaches, and spectators. In addition, measures of fun were collected from participants at each game using a “fun-o-meter.” Results suggest that intentional programming can be successfully employed to increase sportsmanship in youth sports. The youth sport league that did not utilize the benefits-based programming model displayed lower levels of positive sportsmanship and higher levels of negative sportsmanship for both age groups. The parks and recreation professionals at the second site, however, were able to develop a plan that enabled them to accomplish their goals by intentionally determining that sportsmanship and fun were two benefits being promoted in the league. Several lessons resulting from this study can be utilized in order to improve youth sport programs. Administrators who are hoping to create a more positive sportsmanship atmosphere may want to employ the benefits-based programming model. Furthermore, several of the prosocial behavior techniques employed in this study can be used to help professionals improve the sportsmanship in their leagues. A basic program was successfully used that was both easy and inexpensive to incorporate. An additional feature of training referees to use prosocial behavior can then be added for even greater results. By intentionally focusing their efforts on improving sportsmanship, both through increasing positive behaviors and decreasing negative ones, youth sport programs can be more fun for participants, which should lead to better overall experiences and hopefully help these youth to maintain participation in the future.

National Trends in American Youth Sport during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding Parents’ Perspectives and Experiences

American children participate relatively ubiquitously in youth sport and parents are intimately engaged in their participation. However, the onset of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has dramatically changed how families consume youth sport. Given this, it is important to explore the new and still-changing landscape of youth sport in the United States. The purpose of the present study was to better understand parent perceptions of the current state of youth sport in the United States amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this purpose, a large and statistically representativesubset of youth sport parents in the United States (N= 2603; Mage= 38.72) was recruited via Qualtrics panel to complete a study-designed instrument assessing their perceptions prior to and during COVID-19-related restrictions. Results highlight parents’ experiences in youth sport in the United States amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as thier expectations for return-to-play protocols in various organizational, community, and sociodemographic contexts. The present work has the potential to shape the ways families engage with youth sport when COVID-19-related restrictions are ultimately lifted