Parents’ Motivations for Enrolling their Children in Recreational Sports

 Extensive literature covers reasons for participation in sports from the perspective of youth athletes. However, athletic involvement starts early and is determined in part by parental support. The purpose of this study was to learn more about parents’ motivations for enrolling their children in sports. A 49-item parent motivational scale of reasons for enrolling child(ren) in sports was created as part of the study first as a pilot and later tested with 84 parent participants who had school-aged children enrolled in recreational sports. An open-ended question on primary reasons why parents enrolled their child in sports was also included in the study. Exploratory factor analysis of the motivational scale indicated a four-component solution for types of reasons parents enrolled their children in sports: 1. Extrinsic/parent-focused; 2. Child growth and development; 3. Social benefits; and 4. Health/well-being.  Parents rated the latter three types of beneficial reasons for enrolling children in sports more highly than extrinsic/parent-focused ones and were more likely to list beneficial than extrinsic reasons in the open-ended question. Scores on several individual motivational items varied by child’s, not parent’s, gender and parent’s marital status. Implications for use of self-determination and expectancy-value theoretical perspectives, understanding parents’ motivations to encourage children’s sports participation while considering family structure and gender of child, and study limitations with ideas for future research are discussed.  &nbsp

Impact of Combat Experience on Adult Learning for Students Enrolled at Liberty University in Spring 2019

This dissertation joins an active conversation in the behavioral sciences regarding the challenges of assimilating the adult experienced trauma into the adult education setting. This quantitative study employed a nonexperimental, causal-comparative research design to explore the perceptions of current and former combat-experienced military students about their academic experiences. By exploring the needs in higher education that are concerning and prevalent among those who have experienced active combat, this paper discusses the effects of the combat experience on current and former military members as they seek to acclimate to the academic world. This study was guided by Malcolm Knowles’s idea that andragogy is the art and science of adult learning and his five assumed characteristics of an adult learner: self-concept, the adult learning experience, a readiness to learn, prepared to learn, and motivation to learn. An independent samples t-test was utilized to determine if a difference exists between the two groups: learners who have experienced active combat and learners who have not experienced active combat. The dependent variables were defined as academic motivation, personality, and self-esteem. A one-way MANOVA was used to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences within the study variables of academic motivation, personality, self-esteem, and overall academic experience. This study provides no creditable evidence of the impact of experiencing active combat has on the adult leaner. However, this study provides data and information to continue and develop the conversation of the impact of adult trauma on the adult learner