No abstract

A child’s first contact with media and culture typically comes from books they are exposed to in the home and at school. The narratives presented contribute to the early reinforcement of gender roles and norms and can greatly influence the way that young girls perceive and experience sport. The purpose of this study was to explore the narratives within sport-based books geared toward a young female audience to determine the extent to which they promote the engagement of girls in sport. A pragmatic literature search was conducted to obtain books that met our inclusion criteria. Books (n = 28) were analyzed based on the age of their intended audience (aged 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12 years) using thematic narrative analysis. Although the authors promoted the engagement of girls in sport, underlying gender stereotypes were nevertheless salient. Across the books, themes involved the emphasis of “feminine” sports as a context for diversity and learning, the need to understand development as a process, the importance of relationships, and implications pertaining to perceptions of capability as female athletes. Most importantly, the application of a critical feminist lens enabled us to identify an underlying theme—the reinforcement of gender stereotypes—that permeated the storylines and served to undermine the potential adaptive messaging intended by authors. These findings suggest the need for greater attention toward the complexity of female sport and a cultural shift in thinking toward gender equity rather than simply increasing sport access for female participants.

No abstract

The 1616 Program is a newly developed and evidence-informed story-based positive youth development (PYD) program for young ice hockey players (10–12 years of age) in North America. The program uses elite ice hockey players as role models—through story-telling—to serve as inspirational figures to engage youth athletes and important social agents (i.e., parents, coaches) with evidence-informed PYD concepts. The objective of this study was to use a Proof-of-Concept evaluation to assess whether the 1616 Program ‘worked’ in enhancing PYD outcomes and to determine if the concepts were engaging and enjoyable for youth, their parents, and coaches. The 5 week Proof-of-Concept evaluation was conducted with 11 ice hockey teams (n = 160 youths, 93 parents, and 11 coaches), encompassing both qualitative (e.g., focus groups) and quantitative (e.g., retrospective pretest-posttest questionnaires) processes and outcome assessments. Results showed that the program was well received by participants and positively impacted the intended outcomes. Overall, the data presented in this Proof-of-Concept evaluation was deemed to support the development and implementation of the full-scale 1616 Program for a more comprehensive evaluation.