Archives for October, 2026

Sport, Disability, and Gender in the Global South: An Intersectional Study of Women’s Sports Participation in Lao PDR (Laos)

This study explores the multilayered constraints and negotiation processes experienced by women with disabilities in Lao PDR (Laos). A qualitative case study approach was adopted, involving in-depth interviews with eight women actively engaged in sport. Drawing on the Hierarchical Model of Leisure Constraints (HMLC) and an intersectional perspective, the analysis examines how constraints on sport participation are shaped by the interaction of gender, disability, socioeconomic conditions, and place of residence. The findings reveal key intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints, including low self-efficacy, limited access to education and transport, restrictive family expectations, and stigma within the community. Despite these challenges, participants negotiated constraints through relocation to urban areas, the development of peer networks, engagement with disability support organizations, participation in sport competitions, and the maintenance of employment. These processes enabled participants to sustain sport participation and to gain greater recognition and support from their families and communities. By demonstrating how intersecting inequalities shape both constraints and negotiation processes in a Global South context, this study contributes to research on disability sport participation and highlights the value of intersectionality for understanding diverse experiences of sport participation.

Exploring the Factors that Shape the Design and Delivery of Youth Sport across the Western United States

Youth sport in the United States is shaped by diverse practices and principles (e.g., competition, positive development), and youth sport leaders face numerous demands while defining, pursuing, and measuring organizational performance. Although numerous researchers have focused on leadership styles and organizational effectiveness, little research has been designed to examine sport leaders’ perceptions related to decision-making. Accordingly, the present study was designed to explore youth sport leaders’ perspectives and decision-making processes related to the design and delivery of youth sport and framed within the integrated model of the youth sport system (Dorsch et al., 2022). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 youth sport leaders across the western United States and were analyzed using modified qualitative analysis (Kalpokaite and Radivojevic, 2019). Participants revealed how perceptions of proximal and distal influences shaped the design and delivery of youth sport in their communities. Findings suggest that youth sport remains an unregulated competitive and developmental context for youth. Future work should be designed to investigate the many ways community leaders identify and negotiate barriers and opportunities to leverage youth sport as a developmental context and how those processes vary across clubs, communities, and cultures.