Milken Institute School of Public Health Poster Presentations (Marvin Center & Video)
Relative Importance of the Fun Factors: Pattern Matched Perceptions among Players, Parents, and Coaches
Poster Number
59
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
3-2016
Abstract
Background. The FUN MAPS are evidence-based blueprints for the fun integration theory, youth sport’s first-ever stakeholder-derived, theoretical framework for promoting fun through structured skill development and competitive play (Visek et al., 2015). Developed from the direct input of players, parents, and coaches, the FUN MAPS identify and quantify the importance of 81 fun-determinants within 11 factors (i.e., Positive team dynamics, Trying hard, Positive coaching, Learning and improving, Game time support, Games, Practices, Team friendships, Mental bonuses, Team rituals, and Swag). However, the FUN MAPS are based on the combined input from players, parents, and coaches. Efforts to promote the most fun for children requires their priorities to be considered independent of adults and comparatively to one another within and across sex, age, and competition level. Additionally, to elucidate exact points of consensus/discordance between children and adults, players’ priorities should be considered alongside parents and coaches’ perceptions. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to use pattern matching displays, useful for determining within and between group differences, to identify the extent to which children’s (n = 142) reported importance of the 11 factors evolves throughout their development and how their perceptions compares to adults (parents, n = 57; coaches, n = 35).
Methods. The Concept Systems® Global MAX license was used to produce pattern match displays for consensus analysis (r). Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify the fun-factors on which groups significantly differed; and, the Fisher r-to-z transformation was used to determine whether consensus between pattern matches were significantly different from one another.
Results. Results indicate remarkably high degrees of consensus among children, regardless of sex, age, and competition level comparison (r’s = .90-.97). Consensus was also high among children and parents (r = .93); however, it was significantly lower among children and coaches (r’s = .68-.93). Pattern matches are displayed using sophisticated, illustrative ladder graphs.
Discussion. Novel findings from this study provide a more complete context for understanding children’s fun priorities across all 11 fun-factors. Overall, with respect to players, results support the gender similarities hypothesis, rather than the gender differences hypothesis and the other age and competition level assumptions that have long guided organized youth sport. The discordance observed between older players and coaches is of great concern to children’s continued participation into adolescence and may account for the dramatic dropout that occurs around the age of 13. Best practices for optimizing children’s fun sport experiences are forwarded.
Relative Importance of the Fun Factors: Pattern Matched Perceptions among Players, Parents, and Coaches
Background. The FUN MAPS are evidence-based blueprints for the fun integration theory, youth sport’s first-ever stakeholder-derived, theoretical framework for promoting fun through structured skill development and competitive play (Visek et al., 2015). Developed from the direct input of players, parents, and coaches, the FUN MAPS identify and quantify the importance of 81 fun-determinants within 11 factors (i.e., Positive team dynamics, Trying hard, Positive coaching, Learning and improving, Game time support, Games, Practices, Team friendships, Mental bonuses, Team rituals, and Swag). However, the FUN MAPS are based on the combined input from players, parents, and coaches. Efforts to promote the most fun for children requires their priorities to be considered independent of adults and comparatively to one another within and across sex, age, and competition level. Additionally, to elucidate exact points of consensus/discordance between children and adults, players’ priorities should be considered alongside parents and coaches’ perceptions. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to use pattern matching displays, useful for determining within and between group differences, to identify the extent to which children’s (n = 142) reported importance of the 11 factors evolves throughout their development and how their perceptions compares to adults (parents, n = 57; coaches, n = 35).
Methods. The Concept Systems® Global MAX license was used to produce pattern match displays for consensus analysis (r). Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify the fun-factors on which groups significantly differed; and, the Fisher r-to-z transformation was used to determine whether consensus between pattern matches were significantly different from one another.
Results. Results indicate remarkably high degrees of consensus among children, regardless of sex, age, and competition level comparison (r’s = .90-.97). Consensus was also high among children and parents (r = .93); however, it was significantly lower among children and coaches (r’s = .68-.93). Pattern matches are displayed using sophisticated, illustrative ladder graphs.
Discussion. Novel findings from this study provide a more complete context for understanding children’s fun priorities across all 11 fun-factors. Overall, with respect to players, results support the gender similarities hypothesis, rather than the gender differences hypothesis and the other age and competition level assumptions that have long guided organized youth sport. The discordance observed between older players and coaches is of great concern to children’s continued participation into adolescence and may account for the dramatic dropout that occurs around the age of 13. Best practices for optimizing children’s fun sport experiences are forwarded.
Comments
Presented at: GW Research Days 2016.