World’s Best Sports Club

Introduction

When properly conducted, regular and active participation in organized sports within a club setting can contribute to a multitude of positive outcomes that not only benefit the individual athlete but also society at large (Coalter, 2013; Fraser-Thomas, Côté & Deakin, 2005; Wagnsson, 2017). However, for various reasons, a significant proportion of individuals discontinue their involvement in organized sports upon entering adolescence, with over 30% ceasing their participation annually (Wagnsson, 2009; Norberg, 2021). Although a considerable number of these young people continue to engage in physical activities through alternative means (Pilgaard, 2012), their opportunities to harness the advantages inherent in active participation in organized sports are limited. Consequently, it is imperative to implement a range of measures aimed at mitigating the attrition of youth from organized sports.

Previously, various programs have been implemented in an effort to reduce the attrition of youth athletes (see Balish et al., 2014). These programs have seldom been grounded in useful theories or models and have primarily focused on one or a limited number of interventions to prevent dropout. Furthermore, these programs have exhibited shortcomings in their evaluation processes, lacking experimental designs and relying on informal conversations for data collection. For this reason, RF/SISU Uppland, in collaboration with the Sports Science at KaU, embarked on the "World’s Best Sports Club" project during the spring of 2022. The objective of this project was to implement a year-long intervention based on established motivation theories and models, with the aim of reducing the dropout rate of youth athletes (aged 13-19) engaged in organized sports.

The goals of the one-year intervention program are as follows:

  • To enhance the perceived task-involving and autonomy-supportive motivational climate among active youth participants.
  • To increase the joy associated with specific central FUN factors.
  • To improve the perceived athletic competence of the participants.
  • To strengthen the intentions of active participants to continue their involvement in their respective sports, ultimately reducing the attrition rate from the selected sports clubs from 30% to 15%.

Research Questions

  1. Are there any changes over time in the self-reported perceptions of active youth athletes regarding: i) autonomy-supportive and task-involving motivational climates (created by coaches, parents, and peers), ii) their sport-specific competence, iii) what they find enjoyable in sports (FUN factors), iv) their intentions to continue or discontinue organized sports, and how do these perceptions relate to the actual attrition rates from their respective sports clubs?
  2. Are there any gender differences in participation or attrition, and are there changes over time in relation to the aforementioned self-reported perceptions?