Does national pride from international sporting success contribute to well-being? An international investigation

Life Satisfaction and the UEFA EURO 2016: Findings from a Nation-Wide Longitudinal Study in Germany

“…This finding may also help explaining inconsistent results of previous studies. Some studies with insignificant results have focused on surveys, where the majority of the respondents were interviewed weeks or even months after a sport event (Pawlowski et al 2014;Kavetsos and Szymanski 2010). Hence, these studies must assume that well-being effects of major sport events can be Indicated are mean values at t1 and t3, the change from t1 and t3 (diff), the standard deviation of individual changes (SD diff ), the effect size Cohens d and the significance of the change (p) preserved over longer periods.…”

“…Using several waves of the Eurobarometer surveys, Kavetsos (2012) showed that nations which reached higher stages in the UEFA EURO 2000 reported significantly larger levels of life satisfaction afterwards. However, the assumed feelgood effect of national athletic success finds little support in a recent analysis based on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), were sporting success was not directly linked to well-being (Pawlowski et al 2014). Likewise, Doerrenberg and Siegloch (2014), using data of unemployed people from several waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), did not find support for the notion that football tournaments positively impact life satisfaction.…”

“…Only few events, in Germany for instance Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships, are popular enough to have the potential to influence SWB at the national level. So far, studies which analysed the impact of international sporting success for well-being in a whole country have mostly came up with mixed findings (Elling et al 2014;Kavetsos and Szymanski 2010;Kavetsos 2012;Van Hilvoorde et al 2010) or failed to provide evidence that the presumed happiness effect exists (Pawlowski et al 2014). …”

‘We can do it’: Community, resistance, social solidarity, and long-term volunteering at a sport event

“…Policy makers have used volunteering to enhance social cohesion and social inclusion, as well as to develop community engagement (Hustinx & Meijs, 2011). Some researchers claim that to host an event leads to greater subjective well-being (Kavetsos & Szymanski,2010;Pawlowski, Downward, & Rasciute, 2013). Researchers have considered national pride (Hallmann, Breuer & Kühnreich, 2013;De Bosscher, Bingham, Shibli, Van Bottenburg, & De Knop, 2008), but local pride has thus far not been systematically investigated.…”

Pride and the city

“…One of the reasons for this disjuncture is statistical: civic pride is a packaged average based largely on anecdote whereas urban pride is a distribution based on a representative sample of city residents. The latter can range from very high levels of urban pride expressed by residents who are passionate about their city through to quite 6 There is also evidence that international sporting success can be captured in higher subjective wellbeing (Pawlowski et al 2014) even if the effect is short lived (Cummins 2009). The propagation of urban pride via the Sydney Olympics also appears to have been successful because, "Regardless of socio-economic divisions within Sydney, the anticipatory effect of hosting an Olympics united residents in feelings of achievement, civic pride and community" (Waitt 2001).…”