bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Job Satisfaction for Campus Recreation Professionals within NIRSA Institutions
Authors: Stier William F. , Schneider Robert C. , Kampf Stephen , Gaskins Brady P.
Published: August 2016

An international investigation was conducted to determine the overall job satisfaction of college campus recreation employees who are members of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). Demographic information was gathered to provide statistical analysis based on (a) region; (b) size of school; (c) private versus public; (d) four-year versus two-year schools; (e) rural, suburban, and urban location; (f) years in the profession; and (g) reporting structure. The following work related areas were examined to determine if NIRSA members were satisfied with their job environment: (a) personal/individual satisfaction, (b) staffing and organizational structure, (c) financial support, (d) salary and professional development, (e) department and individual expectations, (f) campus recreation facilities, and (g) campus collaboration and communication. The study found that overall the respondents indicated they were satisfied with their job situation/environment with greater satisfaction being shown by those with loftier job titles when compared with those with lesser job titles. Differences in job satisfaction were noted in terms of (a) supervisor's expectations of them, salary, and hours worked (based on amount of experience); (b) salary (based on title held); (c) budget allocation (based on reporting structure); and (d) a desire to leave their present position/job (in terms of job title held, experience/length of service and reporting structure).
The Contribution of Campus Recreational Sports Participation to Perceived Sense of Campus Community
Authors: Elkins Daniel J. , Forrester Scott A. , Noël-Elkins Amelia V.
Published: August 2016

Out-of-class involvement provides students with opportunities for rich social lives which, according to Cheng (2004), are closely associated with sense of campus community. Based on Astin's (1984) Theory of Involvement, and Boyer's (1990) principles of community, the purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which involvement in campus recreational sports programs is associated with students' perceived sense of campus community. Three hundred and thirty respondents completed an on-line questionnaire which consisted of demographics and questions related to their out-of-class involvement in 14 areas as identified by the institutions' Dean of Students Office, and a 25-item sense of community scale developed by Cheng (2004). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to examine the underlying factor structure of the sense of community scale. The six factors extracted from the EFA served as independent variables in a multiple regression analysis used to predict student perceived sense of campus community using a sample of 125 participants in campus recreational sports. In addition, participation levels in campus recreational sports were used to measure differences in perceived sense of campus community based on involvement using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results suggest participation in campus recreational sports significantly predicted a sense of community within the diversity and acceptance factor. In addition, students who participated in campus recreational sports perceived a greater sense of campus community based on the residential experience factor when compared with those students who did not participate.
Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction of Student Employees of a Recreational Sports Department at a Large, Four-Year Public Institution: A Case Study
Authors: Kellison Timothy B. , James Jeffrey D.
Published: August 2016

Job satisfaction is among the most researched concepts in the study of organizational behavior, particularly because of managers' interests in the favorable consequences associated with high job satisfaction. Previous research, however, has largely overlooked part-time employees. This insufficiency is especially problematic for sport and recreation organizations, which often rely heavily on part-time employees to fill specialized roles. The present study was conducted to assess the determinants of job satisfaction among part-time student employees of a university recreational sports department. The results have significant implications for similar organizations. A comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to job satisfaction provides recreational sports administrators with the necessary tools to enhance satisfaction in the student workplace, and ultimately overall productivity.
Best Practices in Student Development for Campus Recreation Professionals
Authors: Toperzer Lauren , Anderson Denise M. , Barcelona Robert J.
Published: August 2016

Student employees play a vital role in the leadership and delivery of campus recreation programs. Therefore, campus recreation professionals have a unique opportunity to contribute to their development. The purpose of this study was to identify best practices for effective student development in campus recreation programs affiliated with the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). Data were collected using the Delphi technique via a web-based survey. A panel of experts including five of the 2009 Regional Vice Presidents of the NIRSA organization, as well as five campus recreation professionals from each region chosen by the Regional Vice Presidents was asked to participate. Panel members advocated five general best practices and 21 specific best practices. The five general best practices were leadership opportunities, performance assessment, training and orientation, personal relationships, and professional development. The results provide a framework that campus recreation professionals can use to enhance student development of their employees.
Participation in Interscholastic and Intramural Sport Programs in Middle Schools: An Exploratory Investigation of Race and Gender
Authors: Edwards Michael B. , Bocarro Jason N. , Kanters Michael , Casper Jonathan
Published: August 2016

Although school-sponsored extracurricular sport remains one of the most popular and effective ways to increase adolescents' physical activity levels, it is designed to include a small number of a school's elite athletes. Fewer schools offer intramural sports, and little is known about participation in these activities. The purpose of this study is to compare variations in how students participate in interscholastic and intramural school sport programs. Using a sample of seventh and eighth graders in two southeastern middle schools, results indicated that school sport participation levels were higher in intramurals than interscholastic sports for all studied categories of students except for White girls. In addition, students participating in intramural sports played nearly twice as many sports during the school year as students participating in interscholastic sports. Gender and race differences in school sport participation both confirm and contradict previous research and suggest that schools should consider cultural factors when planning sport programs for diverse populations of young people.
The Influence of Campus Recreation beyond the Gym
Authors: Henchy Alexandra
Published: August 2016

Increasing student retention is an important issue on college campuses. Researchers have found that nonacademic aspects of campus such as campus recreation can positively influence students' lives (Belch, Gebel, & Maas, 2001; Lindsey & Sessoms, 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine some ways in which participation in campus recreation positively influenced students' lives. After receiving IRB approval, students were randomly selected to complete the campus recreation survey. The survey was based on the NIRSA/Student Voice Campus Recreation Impact Study survey. Of the students who answered the demographic questions, 45% were graduate/professional/continuing education students and 55% were undergraduate students; 43% were male, 56% were female, and < 1% transgender; and the majority of the sample was White (78%). The results showed that students reported a variety of benefits including health and social benefits from their participation in campus recreation facilities and programs.
Connecting Student Employment, Involvement, and Alumni Affinity
Authors: Fresk Kara L. , Mullendore Richard H.
Published: August 2016

Previous research indicates that student employment serves as a means of campus involvement. Additional literature indicates that campus involvement promotes alumni affinity. This study proposes that the missing link between student employment as involvement and alumni affinity lies in the students' perceptions of involvement. Therefore, this study explored whether student employees view their employment as an involvement opportunity and the factors that influence those perceptions. Understanding the factors that contribute to perceptions of involvement allows campus recreation professionals to structure employment experiences that are recognized by students as involvement, thereby promoting long-term affinity for the institution. The findings indicate that students perceive their employment as involvement, though to varying degrees. The factors contributing to those perceptions include a) time spent in the work environment, b) alignment with personal interests, c) relationships with coworkers, d) relationships with supervisors, e) affiliation to program area, and f) interaction with the campus community.
College Directors of Recreation's Perceptions and Practices regarding Student Use of Dietary Supplements and Performance Enhancing Substances
Authors: Welch Philip , Thompson Amy
Published: August 2016

Dietary supplement (DS) use is widespread among college students. The use of performance enhancing supplements (PES) may be primed to increase among college students due to internet availability and social pressure to attain a fit physique. A 40-item survey was sent to a random sample of 600 college Directors of Recreation in the U.S. to determine their perceptions of student use of DS and PES. Despite concern for student use of DS and PES, 11% of college recreation facilities sold DS to students. Less than 1% of the Directors of Recreation surveyed correctly identified the common signs of PES use, 80% lacked a written PES policy, 62% lacked formal education on PES, and 67% lacked formal education on DS. Formal training may be needed for Directors of Recreation and recreation center staff to clarify the warning signs of PES use and outline the potential dangers of selling DS to patrons.
Fit into College II: Physical Activity and Nutrition Behavior Effectiveness and Programming Recommendations
Authors: King Kristi McClary , Ling Jiying , Ridner Lee , Jacks Dean , Newton Karen S. , Topp Robert
Published: August 2016

Purpose

To determine whether residency (living on campus versus off campus) was related to the effects of Fit into College on students' health behaviors, and to understand interns' perceptions of their roles in mentoring their trainees.

Design

Pre-experimental, one-group, pretest-posttest design and a posttest focus group interview.

Setting

University-offered health and internship courses.

Subjects

Twenty-four students (trainees) participated in the intervention, nine of whom lived on campus. Five student-interns served as their mentors.

Intervention

Fit into College was a 14-week intervention in which trainees teamed up with an intern to improve and/or maintain healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors.

Measures

Trainees' nutrition and physical activity behaviors and perceptions were quantitatively assessed through surveys at preintervention and postintervention. Interns' mentoring perceptions were qualitatively assessed through a focus group interview after the intervention.

Analysis

Two-factor repeated measure ANOVAs and qualitative theme identification.

Results

Regardless of their residency location, the trainees' perceptions of the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables improved during the intervention. However, for trainees living on campus, the intervention was not effective in increasing the number of fruits and vegetables consumed or the planning for food preparation. The interns perceived that they did not have adequate access to healthy foods, the knowledge or skills to prepare healthy foods, or the competency to teach food preparation strategies to their trainees. For trainees living on campus, the intervention was more effective in decreasing perceived exercise barriers than trainees living off campus.

Conclusion

Future iterations of Fit into College may focus on 1) improving college students' planning and preparation of healthy foods, 2) segmenting trainees into more homogeneous groups for the interns to tailor their areas of expertise (campus vs. off-campus and/or freshman vs. upperclass students), and 3) collaborating with university-partners to improve environmental conditions to promote physical activity and healthy nutrition.
Race, Sport, and Social Support
Authors: Harris Othello
Published: August 2016

This study investigates whether African American student-athletes receive encouragement to participate in sport from the black community (e.g., parents) or from other socializing agents (e.g., teachers, coaches, and friends). A questionnaire was administered to 23 teams in two summer basketball leagues in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1985. The findings indicate that African American student-athletes are more likely to perceive social support for playing basketball from coaches and friends and especially teachers, who provide encouragement for African Americans to participate in sport, but not from parents. Moreover, support for playing basketball is associated with professional sport aspirations for black, but not white, males.
Hegemony Theory, Social Domination, and Sport: The MacAloon and Hargreaves–Tomlinson Debate Revisited
Authors: Morgan William J.
Published: August 2016

I reexamine some of the contentious issues that frame the debate between MacAloon, who champions an American anthropological approach to the study of sport, and Hargreaves and Tomlinson, who favor a British cultural studies approach to the study of sport. Specifically, I take up Hargreaves and Tomlinson’s central charge that MacAloon’s critical account of British cultural studies, especially its hegemonist wing, is to be dismissed as a one-sided, “staggering misrepresentation.” I argue that while MacAloon misinterprets certain features of this hegemonist writing on sport, his main criticisms of British hegemony sport theory are telling ones that repay closer study.
Fanship and the Television Sports Viewing Experience
Authors: Gantz Walter , Wenner Lawrence A.
Published: August 2016

Employing a uses and gratifications paradigm, we expected that audience experience with televised sports would vary on the basis of fanship, with fans having a qualitatively different, deeper, and more textured set of expectations and responses than nonfans. Fans were expected to respond in similar ways, regardless of gender. Telephone interviews were completed with 707 adults residing in Los Angeles and Indianapolis. Fanship was operationalized using cognitive, affective, and behavioral bases. In this study, fanship made a difference, with fans clearly more invested in the viewing experience. Male and female sports fans reacted and responded in almost identical ways, although men generally were an insignificant shade more involved than women. However, since more males are fans, the televised sports viewing experience in many households may not be shared, even when husbands and wives watch the same TV sports program.
Athletic Directors’ Perceptions of Environmental Control Over Interuniversity Athletics
Authors: Armstrong-Doherty Alison J.
Published: August 2016

Interuniversity athletic departments face an ever-increasing number and complexity of factors in their environment, which may impact on their organizational activities to varying degrees. The head athletic directors at 34 of the 45 (76%) Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) member institutions rated the degree of control of 15 environmental elements over seven basic activities of the athletic department. The athletic department was perceived to function relatively independent of broad environmental control, with the exception of establishing and supporting a philosophy of interuniversity athletics. It appears that perceived control is a multidimensional phenomenon that varies across the environmental elements and the activities of the athletic department.
The Sociocultural Context of Sport and Health: Problems of Causal Relations and Structural Interdependence
Authors: Lüschen Günther , Cockerham William , Kunz Gerhard
Published: August 2016

The review of existing research shows the health impacts of sport mainly on the cardiovascular system. Other causal relations are less firm, and results for the skeleton and accidents appear to be negative. Results of the American-German Health Study of 1985 confirm such results and indicate that sports’ interdependence with health culture is stronger than a supposedly causal impact on indicators of health status.
Establishing and Maintaining a Modified Youth Sport Program: Lessons from Hotelling’s Location Game
Authors: Chalip Laurence , Green B. Christine
Published: August 2016

Modified youth sport programs seek to adapt sport rules, equipment, and contingencies to the needs and abilities of child participants. Research shows that modified programs can broaden the base of youth sport participation, enhance children’s affective experience of sport, and elevate the level of skill they attain. Hotelling’s location game is applied to the analysis of a modified youth soccer program. It is shown that the program struggled to retain the modifications it had implemented and was gradually compelled to adopt elements of the traditional youth sport programs it had initially rejected. This finding is consistent with predictions derived from Hotelling. It is argued that modified programs will have difficulty maintaining their distinctiveness from traditional youth sport if they are implemented within established sport club structures. A framework for facilitating the establishment and maintenance of modified youth sport programs is suggested.
Reading Nancy Lopez: Decoding Representations of Race, Class, and Sexuality
Authors: Jamieson Katherine M.
Published: August 2016

As though it were unfolding today, the Lopez story provides a fertile field for analyzing the varied consequences of interlocking inequalities of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. Lopez is constructed through the print media as a symbol of assimilation, as well as a body coopted in the project of Latino-Latina pride and social justice. The selected “Lopez texts,” which include Sports Illustrated, Nuestro, and Hispanic magazines, offer powerful and complex examples of the authority of the media to construct and reconstruct the events surrounding Lopez’s career. The purpose of the paper is to apply feminist insights regarding racialized, classed, and sexualized forms of gender to examine the complexity and salience of Nancy Lopez’s presence on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour.
Unnecessary Roughness: Gender and Racial Politics in Domestic Violence Media Events
Authors: McDonald Mary G.
Published: August 2016

Media accounts of physical assault perpetrated by male sport figures against women offer some of the most visible accounts of domestic violence available. This article examines these representations as media events that convey gender and racial meanings. Critical analysis of the Wilfredo and Ana Cordero domestic violence case and the Dan and Brenda McCarney domestic violence case suggests that, when acknowledged, violent abuse is often constructed as a matter of individual pathology without sustained critique of male cultural power. Yet, from the perspective of a White-dominated culture, violence perpetrated by men of color also suggests racist characterizations of cultural deficiency. While offering contradictory meanings, representations of these domestic violence incidents provide sites for the consolidation of male and White privilege.
Too Much, Too Fast, Too Soon: Chinese Women Runners, Accusations of Steroid Use, and the Politics of American Track and Field
Authors: Plymire Darcy C.
Published: August 2016

In the summer and fall of 1993, women from the People’s Republic of China set an astounding number of world records in track and field. Never had so many women performed so brilliantly in such a short period of time. American track and field journalists, however, responded with shock and outrage. Though the women had never tested positive for steroid use, these journalists insisted that the Chinese women could only have succeeded by using steroids. A qualitative discourse analysis of stories written by these journalists revealed that the case against the Chinese was made by privileging the voices of Western European and American athletes, coaches, and sport scientists, and discrediting the Chinese athletes and coaches. The case buttressed the authority of Western track and field experts and athletes whose dominance might otherwise have been shaken by the superior performances of the Chinese. However, the analysis also pointed to a conflict of interest among different factions of the American track and field establishment as scientists, coaches, athletes, and officials all attempted to distance themselves from blame for the prevalence of steroid use by focusing attention on the misdeeds of others.
The Expendable Prolympic Self: Going beyond the Boundaries of the Sociology and Psychology of Sport
Authors: Ingham Alan G. , Blissmer Bryan J. , Davidson Kristen Wells
Published: August 2016

This article offers a proposal for combining the sport sociological and sport psychological imaginations. In order to effect this rapprochement, some serious adjustments to the ways in which many applied sport psychologists and sport sociologists think about and conduct research are required. Thus, the initial part of this article expresses some critiques, albeit brief, of current tendencies within both sport sociology and sport psychology. We deemed these critiques necessary to advance a neo-Millsian position on the articulation of social structure and personality. This neo-Millsian position draws on the ego-psychoanalytical tradition to offer suggestions for how we might reconceive the problems of indispensability/expendability in the Prolympic structures of sport and for how we might, using a life-histories (biographical) methodology, engage in useful or practical research, especially on the problematics of how individuals handle/mishandle early, pre-career, and mid-career failure, and, in the long-run, inevitable failure at the end of their careers. Where, then, is the common ground between sport sociology and sport psychology? We argue that it is the analysis of ego-practices and ego-defenses as learned, consciously or unconsciously, over our biographical lives as they intersect with, and are contoured by, social history and social structure.
Brother, Can You Spare a Seat? Developing Recipes of Knowledge in the Ticket Scalping Subculture
Authors: Atkinson Michael
Published: August 2016

Although deviance on and off the field have become popular topics of sociological investigation, sociologists have not studied the criminal or otherwise “deviant” roles ticket scalpers play in the cultural spectacle that is professional sport. In many ways, ticket scalpers have become a mainstay part of the backdrop upon which fans experience sporting events. As a first step in developing a sociological portrait of the social processes involved in ticket scalping, it is essential to examine how scalping is accomplished and experienced by its practitioners. This paper is intended to introduce sociologists of sport to die subculture of ticket scalpers by attending to the in-group perspectives and understandings ticket scalpers share toward their practices. Specifically, using ethnographic data collected on 54 ticket scalpers in a central Canadian city, I address how scalpers develop recipes of knowledge for their trade and how ticket scalping is accomplished as a social practice.
Negotiating Gender: Bodybuilding and the Natural/Unnatural Continuum
Authors: Wesely Jennifer K.
Published: August 2016

Bodybuilding is a body technology that involves the building of muscle through hard work lifting weights. Although technologies like bodybuilding can reify dominant constructions of gender. I suggest that bodybuilding also reflects the attempts of participants to be active agents in the choices they make about their bodies. This article addresses the body as a work in progress and uses in-depth interviews with male and female bodybuilders to examine the ways that gender identity is consistently negotiated as participants reshape their bodies. This ongoing identity negotiation is reflected in the ways participants assess various body technologies, like bodybuilding, muscle-enhancing drugs, and cosmetic surgery as natural or unnatural. Based on the responses, I explore the idea of a natural/unnatural continuum as a framework for understanding the ways that the participants fluctuate in their assessments of hugely built and other technologized bodies.
Team Sports, Seasonal Histories, Significant Events: Little League Baseball and the Creation of Collective Meaning
Authors: Fine Gary Alan
Published: August 2016

Team sports typically depend for their meaning on the existence of a season—a string of games which, taken together, constitute the basis of success or failure. Further, teams are organized into leagues that compete against each other to see which team will gain the highest ranking, that is, which team can win one more game than any of its competitors. In this analysis, based on a 3-year participant observation study of five Little League baseball leagues, I suggest some ways in which teams sports has a historical focus. Specifically I point to the important role of statistics and records, the role of collective expectations in constructing the meaning of a season, and the role of important games and events in structuring recall. Seasons are structured like plays or novels in that they have beginnings and climaxes, or at least definite endings that can be referred to after the season. The essence of sport is not exercise, but memory.
From Corporate Welfare to National Interest: Newspaper Analysis of the Public Subsidization of NHL Hockey Debate in Canada
Authors: Scherer Jay , Jackson Steven J.
Published: August 2016

Despite the historic and popular alignment of ice hockey with Canadian identity, the public subsidization of National Hockey League (NHL) franchises remains a highly contentious public issue in Canada. In January 2000 the Canadian government announced a proposal to subsidize Canadian-based NHL franchises. The proposal, however, received such a hostile national response that only three days after its release an embarrassed Liberal government was forced to rescind it. This article explores how Canadian anglophone newspapers mediated the NHL subsidy debate and emerged as critical sites through which several interrelated issues were contested: the subsidization of NHL franchises, competing discourses of Canadian national identity, and the broader political-economic and sociocultural impacts of the Canadian government’s adherence to a neoliberal agenda.
Steve Prefontaine: From Rebel with a Cause to Hero with a Swoosh
Authors: Walton Theresa A.
Published: August 2016

World-class runner Steve Prefontaine died May 30, 1975, at the age of 24. Running during a time of unparalleled track and field popularity, he was a favorite media focus. Incredibly, he regained media attention in the 1990s. Using a critical cultural studies approach, this article explores media accounts of Prefontaine. A 1970s working-class “rebel with a cause,” Prefontaine served as an ideal of White working-class masculinity and as a voice calling for structural changes to the track and field governing body. In the 1990s, with the Nike funded reemergence of Prefontaine, that rebelliousness was recontextualized and co-opted, shifting Prefontaine into a commodified maverick celebrity, embodying the changing ideals of White, classless masculinity and supporting the ideology of individualism in late consumer capitalism.
Game, Sex, and Match: The Construction of Gender in British Newspaper Coverage of the 2000 Wimbledon Championships
Authors: Vincent John
Published: August 2016

This study compared British newspaper coverage of female and male tennis players competing in the 2000 Wimbledon Championships. Content analysis methodology was used to compare the amount of coverage in The Times, Daily Mail, and The Sun. Drawing on Connell’s (1987, 1993, 1995) theory of gender power relations, textual analysis was used to examine recurring themes in the gendered coverage and analyze how the themes intersected with race. Although few discrepancies were found in the amount of coverage, qualitative comparisons revealed that the predominantly male journalists generally devalued the athletic achievements of female tennis players by using cultural and racial stereotypes, trivialization, and sexual innuendo. In comparison, the journalists frequently expressed their reverence for male tennis players’ athleticism, reproducing and legitimizing hegemonic masculinity.
Contesting Race on Sundays: Making Meaning out of the Rise in the Number of Black Quarterbacks
Authors: Buffington Daniel
Published: August 2016

This is a study of the process of racial formation; specifically how a rise in the number of Black quarterbacks playing in the National Football League (NFL) was interpreted in print-media articles. Analysis reveals a number of competing and overlapping interpretations, suggesting that sport is “contested racial terrain” (Hartmann, 2000). The contested nature and the tendency for these articles to express language and ideas borrowed from dominant American political ideologies indicate how important sport is as a site for the construction of race. Using Gramscian cultural theory, these interpretations, as well as narrative formations capable of assimilating this demographic shift within preexisting racial configurations, are discussed in light of changes in the articulation of race in the post-civil rights era.
Paul Willis, Cultural Commodities, and Collective Sport Fandom
Authors: Hughson John , Free Marcus
Published: August 2016

In sociology of sport, a considerable amount of scholarship concentrates on sport as an arena of social resistance. Fundamental to understanding resistance within practices of sport following and fandom is an underlying knowledge of the nature of sport as a cultural commodity in which fandom and following are invested. This article draws on Paul Willis’s theoretical work as a means of examining contemporary cultural commodities and the commodity nature of sport in particular. The theoretical discussion is illustrated by an empirical study of developments within English soccer involving collective supporters’ resistance to heightened corporate intrusion into the control of professional clubs.
Sport Volunteerism and Social Capital
Authors: Harvey Jean , Lévesque Maurice , Donnelly Peter
Published: August 2016

This study focuses on the relationship between sport volunteerism and social capital, defined here as a resource that stems from participation in certain social networks. A position generator and a resources generator were used to measure the social capital of respondents. Results from this pilot study survey, exploring several aspects of volunteerism in sport in two Canadian communities (one in Québec, the other in Ontario), show a strong relationship between volunteerism in sport and social capital but do not allow a precise measure of the direction of this relationship. Results also show stronger relationships between sport volunteerism and social capital when we control for gender, language, and age.
“Blackfellas” Basketball: Aboriginal Identity and Anglo-Australian Race Relations in Regional Basketball
Authors: Hallinan Chris , Judd Barry
Published: August 2016

This article is a study of an Aboriginal men’s sport team in an Australian regional community and their experiences with non-Aboriginal teams and their players. The data were drawn from interviews and conversations with the players of the Ballarat Wanderers men’s basketball team and the analysis is grounded in the inferential racism work of Hall (1995). Investigation of the Wanderers revealed that participation provided the players an uncommon opportunity to participate in an Aboriginal team of players, coaches, and managers. The findings, however, indicate that even though the Wanderers achieved some success as a social, political, and sporting group, they do so in an environment which is inferentially racist.
More than Just Letting Them Play: Parental Influence on Women’s Lifetime Sport Involvement
Authors: Dixon Marlene A. , Warner Stacy M. , Bruening Jennifer E.
Published: August 2016

This qualitative study uses expectancy-value and life course theories (Giele & Elder, 1998) to examine both the proximal and distal impact of early family socialization on enduring female participation in sport. Seventeen National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I female head coaches from the U.S. participated in interviews regarding parental influence on their sport involvement. Participants revealed three general mechanisms of sport socialization: a) role modeling, b) providing experience, and c) interpreting experience. Parental influence impacted their enduring involvement in sport by normalizing the sport experience, particularly in terms of gender, and by allowing them a voice in their own participation decisions. Insights regarding the roles of both parents and the interactive and contextual nature of socialization for increasing female participation are discussed.
Mental Well-Being and Sport-Related Identities in College Students
Authors: Miller Kathleen E. , Hoffman Joseph H.
Published: August 2016

Past research has linked physical activity and sports participation with improved mental and social well-being, including reduced risk of depression and suicidality. In this study we examined relationships among several dimensions of athletic involvement (team sport participation, individual sport participation, athlete identity, and jock identity), gender, and depression and suicidal behavior in a sample of 791 undergraduate students. Both participation in a team sport and athlete identity were associated with lower depression scores. Athlete identity was also associated with lower odds of a past-year suicide attempt, whereas jock identity was associated with elevated odds of a suicide attempt. The findings are discussed in light of the relationship between mental well-being and a larger constellation of health-risk behaviors linked to a “toxic jock” identity.
“An Eye for Talent”: Talent Identification and the “Practical Sense” of Top-Level Soccer Coaches
Authors: Christensen Mette Krogh
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this study is to explore how top-level soccer coaches identify talent. I draw on Bourdieu’s work to challenge a commonly held assumption that talent identification is a rational or objective process. Analysis of in-depth interviews with eight coaches of national youth soccer teams indicated these coaches identified talent in three ways. First, coaches use their practical sense and their visual experience to recognize patterns of movement among the players. Second, the coaches’ classificatory schemes are characterized by their preference for so-called “autotelic” players, that is, players that, from the coaches’ perspective, exhibit a potential to learn, practice, and improve. Third, the study shows that talent, of which the coaches act as arbiters of taste, is socially configured in top-level soccer.
Alterglobalization, Global Social Movements, and the Possibility of Political Transformation through Sport
Authors: Harvey Jean , Horne John , Safai Parissa
Published: August 2016

Alterglobalization is the name for a large spectrum of global social movements that present themselves as supporting new forms of globalization, urging that values of democracy, justice, environmental protection, and human rights be put ahead of purely economic concerns. This article develops a framework for the study of the influence of alterglobalization on sport by: outlining a periodization of social movements and sport; proposing a typology of responses to the politics of globalization; and proposing a typology of recent social movements associated with sport. The article does not report on an empirical research project, but provides a stock take of what has happened since the 1990s regarding the politics of globalization and the politics of sport, with specific reference to global social movements. The questions raised in this article include: What form do the movements challenging the world sports order today take? Does an alterglobalization movement exist in sport? What alternative models of sport do they propose?
Bending, Flirting, Floating, Flying: A Critical Analysis of Female Figures in 1970s Gymnastics Photographs
Authors: Weber Julia , Barker-Ruchti Natalie
Published: August 2016

During the 1970s, a new corporal and aesthetic standard emerged in women’s artistic gymnastics. No longer was grace and elegance the main feature, but acrobatic and somewhat robotic performances. These exercises were increasingly performed by highly trained and sexually immature girls. The Western audience was fascinated by the athletic and innocent-looking gymnasts. The emerging corporality and performance trend combined youthfulness und slimness with physical fitness and muscular tone, a combination that reflected the idealized woman of the 1970s. Sports photographs played a key role in distributing the “new” ideal of femininity. In this article, we consider how gymnasts’ performances of the 1970s were visualized by examining a sample of professional sports photographs. We demonstrate how sports photographs construct and establish gender and body standards through their visual construction of gendered and de-gendered gymnastics performances.
Glocalization and Sports in Asia
Authors: Cho Younghan , Leary Charles , Jackson Steven J.
Published: August 2016

Asia’s sports-mediascapes are increasingly globalized and regionalized, as are the roles played specifically by global sports in the processes of reconstituting national imaginaries among local populations as they undergo the larger experience of globalization. As such, the thesis of “glocalization” developed by Roland Robertson informs the essays in this special issue that tackle recent trends in sports culture in Asian localities, engaged in a global arena. As Asian locales host mega sporting events and new mediscapes for the glocal sports industry, glocal sports fan, and the glocal athlete, the essays in this special issue propose crucial concerns for the discipline of sports studies.
Athletic Aggression: An Issue of Contextual Morality
Authors: Bredemeier Brenda Jo , Shields David L.
Published: August 2016

The designation of an act as aggressive involves an implicit or explicit moral judgment. Consequently, research on aggression must address the value issues involved. The present article suggests that Haan’s theory of interactional morality can be used to provide a framework for social scientific research into moral issues. Haan’s model, however, must be adapted to the unique context of sport. This study applies the concept of frame analysis as a procedure for clarifying the moral reasoning associated with athletic aggression. In contrast to similar acts in everyday life, moral ambiguity characterizes some sport acts intended to deliver minor noxious stimuli. The label of aggression must be used with caution when designating such acts.
The Relative Effects of Gender, Race, and Sport on University Academic Performance
Authors: Kiger Gary , Lorentzen Deana
Published: August 2016

This paper investigates the relative effects of gender, race, and type of sport (revenue vs. nonrevenue sport) on academic performance among university athletes. Using regression analyses, the study demonstrates that race is the strongest predictor of university academic performance. Gender, race, and type of sport also influence intervening variables such as secondary school academic achievement, financial assistance, and intensity of involvement in athletics at the university. The implications for academic and athletic programs are discussed.
It’s Goals That Count? Football Finance and Football Subcultures
Authors: Moorhouse Herbert F.
Published: August 2016

In Britain, professional football (soccer) is the major sport and has been the focus of considerable sociological study. This paper argues that previous studies, which have concentrated on football’s relation to class relations and class cultures, have erred by ignoring the role of football finance. Evidence is provided about the relation in Britain between two professional leagues, the English and the Scottish; and the financial situation of four major clubs, two from each side of the border, is traced to reveal significant differences between them. These variations are then used to show how particular patterns of football finance feed into the symbols and images that surround the game in Scotland and that feed into the popular culture of that country in a way which preempts class as the most fruitful line of analysis.
The Sport Mystique in Black Culture
Authors: Rudman William J.
Published: August 2016

This research examines the relationship between race, social structure, and sport orientations. Specifically, the questions addressed are whether blacks and whites differ in their orientations toward sport, and whether factors that influence sport orientations are race-dependent. Hypotheses concerning blacks’ and whites’ sports orientations are derived from prior research looking at the use of sport as a means of upward mobility and the impact of labor market structure on employment differences between blacks and whites. The results of this research raise some intriguing questions concerning the manner in which race and social structure affect an individual’s orientation toward sport. Overall, the results provide support for beliefs about differences in blacks’ and whites’ orientations toward sport. Blacks were more likely than whites to become vicariously involved in sport outcomes, and to incorporate sport into their daily lives. Perhaps the most important result is the finding that factors related to an individual’s position within the social structure have a similar impact on influencing both blacks’ and whites’ orientations toward sport. This would suggest that sport orientations for both blacks and whites are a result of an interaction between race and social structure that limits blacks’ opportunities in other professional occupations.
Quality of Exit from University Sports and Life Satisfaction in Early Adulthood
Authors: Kleiber Douglas , Greendorfer Susan , Blinde Elaine , Samdahl Diane
Published: August 2016

The possibility that the experience of retirement from sport may be different from one athlete to another has not been thoroughly examined. The current study offers evidence on the effect of role performance in intercollegiate basketball and football on life satisfaction in the period of adulthood immediately following. The theoretical departure point for this research comes from Kearl’s (1986) analysis of “exits” in everyday life and his assumption that the quality of role performance in the ending phases of a career will influence subsequent well-being. From a survey of recollections, orientations, and current conditions of 426 former football and basketball players, subjects were grouped according to whether they had received some kind of recognition during their last year (e.g., all-league, honorable mention), whether they had started most of the games or not, and whether their career had been cut short due to serious injury. Life satisfaction, as measured by the LSI-A, showed a significant main effect for career-ending injury but not for the other two variables, and there were no interactions. Athletes who had sustained a careerending injury before completing eligibility showed significantly lower life satisfaction than those who had not. Tests for the influence of year leaving sport and continued involvement in sport did not change the result. Thus, the evidence provides mixed support for the quality-of-exit thesis; while good endings may not affect subsequent life satisfaction, bad endings may.
The Social World of High School Athletic Coaches: Multiple Role Demands and Their Consequences
Authors: Sage George H.
Published: August 2016

A field study of high school teacher/coaches was undertaken, guided by the following general questions: What is it like being a high school teacher/coach? What are the main occupational contingencies for high school teacher/coaches? How do teacher/coaches think about themselves and their situations? The larger field study that provided the data base for this paper was conducted over a 5-month period in 1985 during which I observed teacher/coaches in six high schools. The data were drawn from naturally occurring observations and conversations with teacher/coaches, noncoaching teachers, and school administrators. Formal interviews were also conducted with 50 teacher/coaches. Data described in this paper are qualitative and focus on teacher/coaches’ feelings and attitudes about their profession and the meanings about the multiple role demands they are confronted with. The observations and interviews demonstrate quite dramatically the complexity and pervasiveness of role overload and interrole conflict in this occupation and the role strain that results. Coping and resolution strategies used by teacher/coaches are discussed.
The Discourse of Gender and Sport: From Femininity to Feminism
Authors: Hall M. Ann
Published: August 2016

The argument presented here is that the sociological discourse of gender and sport, in other words the way the topic is approached, the assumptions surrounding its investigation, and the ways in which new knowledge is generated has been determined without sufficient recognition of its own ideological foundations. Gender, it is argued, is a major social and theoretical category that, along with social class, race, age, ethnicity, and others, must be incorporated into all theoretically based social analyses of sport. The paper reviews the development of the gender and sport discourse from its origins in social psychological research that focused on the supposed conflict between femininity and athleticism, to the more sophisticated yet functionalist notion of “sex roles” and its application to sport, and finally to the emerging feminist paradigm that is informed by a growing body of feminist social theory. The final section argues for a transformation of the gender and sport discourse toward a truly emancipatory one and provides some concrete suggestions as to how to bring this about.
Baseball as Underdevelopment: The Political-Economy of Sport in the Dominican Republic
Authors: Klein Alan M.
Published: August 2016

This study examines the political-economy of baseball in the Dominican Republic from a critical perspective. As such, the presence of American major league teams is seen to have a deleterious structural effect on the autonomy and quality of baseball in the Dominican Republic. In particular, in attempting to develop the game, U.S. interests—like those of other multinationals—are underdeveloping the game. A second dimension to this study views baseball as an American popular cultural form that functions to soften the regular, hostile responses of Dominicans to American political and economic domination of their country. Thus, while serving to reproduce U.S. control, baseball takes on the appearance of a benevolent, even helpful, cultural institution.