Category archives for Sport and Gender

Experiences abroad: The impacts of an international sport for development trip on American young women

While the field of Sport for Development (SFD) has grown over the last several decades, there remain gaps within program evaluation. Given that there are multiple models of programming SFD, Goals for Girls, a U.S. based SFD non-profit organization that uses soccer-based trips abroad to empower young women, provided a strong platform for study. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of a SFD trip abroad on American young women. Through interviews with over 30 young women spanning 13-years of programming, three themes and five sub-themes emerged. Collectively, the trips impacted the young women in the areas of relationship building, expansion of perception, and desire for change. The authors suggest that programming like Goals for Girls highlights both the strengths and challenges inherent in SFD.

Levelling up: Opportunities for sport for development to evolve through esport

As one of the most disruptive forces to the sports industry in decades, the esports industry has borrowed long standing approaches used in sport to emerge and establish itself in the sporting landscape. Esports has a growing appeal among a youth demographic that is similar to the youth demographic targeted by the Sport for Development (SFD) community. This paper examines the aspects of esports that the SFD sector can leverage to enhance program delivery to drive deeper systemic change, including leveraging gamification, harnessing the reach of mobile gaming, and capitalizing on the variety of games and consoles available to achieve nuanced SFD outcomes. The paper encourages starting increased dialogue on how video games and esport may be complementary tools for SFD organizations that want to innovate or evolve how they create and deliver impact.

Examining the impact of a sport-based positive youth development program for adolescent girls of color: A mixed methods study

Adolescent girls of color experience systemic and interpersonal risk factors that intersect on the basis of their race, gender, and age. These risks negatively influence their rates of obesity, engagement in physical activity, and overall health and well-being. Sport-based positive youth development (PYD) programs are known to address risks and build protective factors, yet little is known about how these programs specifically impact adolescent girls of color. This mixed method study examines the impact of a sport-based PYD summer camp on the holistic health of adolescent girls of color. We conducted nine qualitative interviews and compared changes in mean scores on pre- and post-camp survey measures for 35 adolescent girls of color. In our findings, we identify underlying program mechanisms and design components that influenced girls’ experiences, participation, and engagement. Further, we describe positive changes reported by girls in relation to their physical, social, psychological, and spiritual health and well-being. We also present an emergent theory of change to serve as a guide for how sport-based PYD programs can be leveraged to address intersectional health and well-being outcomes among adolescent girls of color.

Yarning with the Stars Project: An Indigenous evaluation protocol for a sport for development and peace program

In Australia, the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their non-Indigenous peers is significant in terms of attendance, retention to Year 12, and literacy and numeracy skills, with the gap widening in regional and remote contexts. School-based, “academy-style” engagement programs work to close this gap by providing holistic support services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students while requiring a certain level of school attendance by program participants. Shooting Stars is an engagement program based in seven remote and regional schools in Western Australia, where it uses netball and other incentives to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls in their education, while promoting their health and wellbeing. Shooting Stars evaluates the efficacy of its services through collation of attendance data, participant case studies, and yarning circles. The methods used in the yarning circles research were developed over 18 months in collaboration with Shooting Stars participants, localized Shooting Stars steering committees, and Shooting Stars staff. This paper presents the evaluation protocols for the Shooting Stars program, focusing on the yarning circles’ methods in order to provide a framework or model of Indigenous evaluation methods for others working within this space.

Localizing global sport for development (Book review)

As studies continue to proliferate in a variety of areas within the sport-for-development (SFD) sector, the need for analysis of the circumstances and nuances within which SFD programming takes place remains crucial. As the field has recognised the context-specificity of SFD programmes and the communities in which they operate, the importance of understanding the views of those individuals at the local level and empirical studies that explicate and explore such perspectives have been emphasized. In their book, Localizing Global Sport for Development, Iain Lindsey, Tess Kay, Ruth Jeanes, and Davies Banda have responded to the call for deeper examinations of SFD by offering a profound exploration and extensive analysis of local, national and international influences on Zambian contexts of SFD and its related components.

Levelling the playing field: Human capability approach and lived realities for sport and gender in the West Indies

This unique study is the first to apply the human capability approach (HCA) to explicitly investigate gender role attitudes from the perspective of boy and girl participants in SDP. We believe it is vital to include voices of all participants to more critically examine how SDP might both challenge and reinforce restrictive gender norms. This paper is drawn from a research project for a doctoral thesis in Development Studies and focuses on adolescent participants, youth coaching trainees, programme facilitators and government administrators involved in SDP programmes in Barbados and St. Lucia (n=104). The primary author conducted surveys, focus group discussions, interviews and journaling to gather the data presented here and in the thesis. Using the HCA as a theoretical framework, we argue that these SDP programmes tend to integrate participants into masculinised, heteronormative forms of sport that may unwittingly reinforce restrictive gender norms for both boys and girls. In order to better support the capability development of all participants, SDP leaders must actively challenge restrictive gender role attitudes of masculinity and femininity.

Sports-for-development gender equality impacts from a basketball programme: Shifts in attitudes and stereotyping in Senegalese youth and coaches

Despite the increasing popularity of sports-for-development programmes worldwide, little research has examined how these programmes shape gender attitudes, a key component of positive youth development. This study examines how participation in a sports-for-development programme in Senegal is associated with the gender equality attitudes of youth and coaches. A repeated cross-sectional design is utilized to examine how measures of gender equity and stereotypes among 87 youth and 32 coaches with no experience in the programme (Time 1) differ from the same measures among youth and coaches with at least one year of programme participation (Time 2). Findings indicated that youth endorsements of gender equity and non-traditional gender roles were significantly higher for some participants at Time 2 compared to the reported attitudes at Time 1. When compared to female youth, male youth reported greater endorsement of non-traditional gender roles at Time 1, with lower levels of endorsement reported at Time 2. Coaches’ gender equity attitudes did not differ significantly between Time 1 and Time 2. With minimal programme exposure, the LLP programme may potentially increase gender equity attitudes and decrease gender stereotyping among youth, particularly females in southern Senegal. Future sports-for-development programmes should increase programming prioritization of coaches, a group that appeared to show no benefit from the programme.

The social, cultural, and historical complexities that shape and constrain (gendered) space in an SDP organisation in Colombia

Recent research on the role of ‘safe space’ within Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) shows that the social inclusion of young women in traditionally male sporting spaces may shift who can comfortably access and shape public spaces. Framing safe space as a social construction and a dynamic process, and drawing from six months of ethnographic research conducted in two volatile neighbourhoods with a Colombian SDP organisation, this paper will explore the social, cultural and historical complexities that shape and constrain safe space. It will argue that while the SDP organisation’s ability to adapt to change and resign control makes it accessible to the local community, the positioning of both the organisation and participants simultaneously permits the continuation of gendered space. This data is then analysed through Spaaij and Schulenkorf’s multi-dimensional interpretation of safe space. In conclusion, further research about the physical and psycho-social barriers that constrain females from participating in SDP programming is suggested.

Beyond sport for development and peace: Transnational perspectives on theory, policy and practice (Book Review)

Review by Christina T. Kwauk1 1 Georgetown University, USA Download article as PDF Book Citation Hayhurst, L.M.C., Kay, T., Chawansky, M. (eds). Beyond Sport for Development and Peace: Transnational Perspectives on Theory, Policy and Practice. Milton Park, Abingdon: Routledge; 2016, 244pp., £68 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-138-80667-2 REVIEW At the dawn of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), […]

Sport in the Lives of Young People with Intellectual Disabilities: Negotiating Disability, Identity and Belonging

Louisa Smith1, Nikki Wedgwood2, Gwynnyth Llewellyn2, Russell Shuttleworth3 1 School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia 2 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia 3 School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia Citation: Smith, L., Wegdwood, N., Llewellyn, G., Shuttleworth. R. Sport in the Lives of Young People with […]

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Understanding Perceptions of Effective Strategies and Outcomes in a Female Youth-Driven Physical Activity-Based Life Skills Programme

Corliss Bean1, Tanya Forneris1, Michelle Fortier1 1 University of Ottawa, Department of Human Kinetics, Canada Citation: Bean, C., Forneris, T., Fortier, M. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Understanding Perceptions of Effective Strategies and Outcomes in a Female Youth-Driven Physical Activity-Based Life Skills Programme. Journal of Sport for Development. 2015; 3(4): 28-40. Download article as PDF […]

Volume 2, Issue 3 published

Publication of Volume 2, Issue 3 The Journal of Sport for Development (JSFD) is pleased to announce the publication of its third issue. Please click here to download the full PDF of the issue. JSFD’s mission is to advance, examine and disseminate evidence and best practices for programs and interventions that use sport to promote […]

Empowerment revisited: How social work integrated into a sports programme can make a difference

Stéphanie Simard1, Suzanne Laberge1, Martin Dusseault2 1 Université de Montréal, Kinesiology department, Canada 2 Centre de santé et services sociaux Jeanne-Mance, Canada Citation: Simard, S., Laberge, S., Dusseault, M. Empowerment revisited: How social work integrated into a sports programme can make a difference. Journal of Sport for Development. 2014; 2(3). Download article as PDF Abstract […]

Volume 1, Issue 2 published

Publication of Volume 1, Issue 2 The Journal of Sport for Development (JSFD) is pleased to announce the publication of its fourth issue. Click here to download a full PDF of Issue 2 JSFD’s mission is to advance, examine and disseminate evidence and best practices for programs and interventions that use sport to promote development, […]

Volume 1, Issue 1 published

Publication of Volume 1, Issue 1 The Journal of Sport for Development (JSFD) is pleased to announce the publication of its first Issue. JSFD is the first peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to exclusively publishing research from the field of Sport for Development (SFD). The journal was developed in response to a need to establish a […]

Sport for Development Programmes for Girls and Women: A Global Assessment

Using a framework of sport for development (SFD) theory and programme objectives set forth by the UN, this study identified trends in sport for SFD programmes for girls and women. The number of SFD programmes, objectives, and intended impacts identified in this study suggests that the abundance of policies supporting sport and women’s development is a step forward in the quest for global gender equity and the achievement of various Millennium Development Goals […]