Norwegian Children’s Rights in Sport and Coaches’ Understanding of Talent

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), every child has a right to practise sports in a healthy, safe environment (art. 19). However, research indicates that child athletes experience various forms of violence in sports. Violence is particularly harmful to children, as the effects may be significant and long lasting. In addition, children often have difficulty identifying and reacting to violence. In this article, we first aim to shed light on the prevalence and implications of violence towards child athletes in sports. By child athletes, we mean athletes under the age of 18 (CRC art. 1). Thereafter, we discuss the following questions: (1) How does the CRC protect children in sports? (2) Can children’s rights be effectively protected through sports self-regulation of sports bodies and legal remedies? (3) Who is responsible for safeguarding children’s rights in sports? To answer these questions, we employ a multidisciplinary perspective that combines jurisprudence and sport psychology. In summary, we conclude that the CRC unequivocally prohibits all violence against children in all sectors of society, including sports. The responsibility for enforcing this prohibition lies with both member states and sports bodies. It is always the responsibility of adults. The full realisation of children’s rights requires action on multiple fronts, including legislation, information, education and resources.

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“…General Comment No 5 2003, para 12. See also Doek 2014, p. 213;Ellingsen and Danielsen 2017, pp. 414-415.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s right to play sports in a safe and healthy environment

2022

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“…Norway was the first country to formally regulate children's rights and activities in sport (through Children's Rights in Sport (CRS) and Provisions on Children's Sport), with the CRS declaration underpinning its junior and youth sport system. National Sport Federations adopted CRS, with financial penalties for failure to comply (Ellingsen and Danielsen, 2017 ). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC), explicitly included in Swedish sport policy since 2009, was incorporated by law into Swedish sport on January 1, 2020.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[In] the public debate in Norway, the CRS seem at times to be viewed as a hindrance to bring about top-level achievement in sports [...] and it seems to be less focused upon the children's rights perspective and the best interests of the child (Ellingsen and Danielsen, 2017 , p. 416).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting a culture change in junior and youth sport in New Zealand

Walters¹,

Minjares²,

Bradbury³

et al. 2022

Front. Sports Act. Living

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This paper provides insight into the evolution of a project designed to address longstanding adult attitudes and behavioural issues in junior and youth sport in New Zealand. The project was funded by Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) and implemented by Aktive, a charitable trust that works with national and regional partners to fund and deliver community sport in Auckland. Aktive collaborated with a team of junior and youth sport researchers, adopting a pragmatic, mixed methods design-based research (DBR) approach to co-design an educational delivery framework aimed at influencing attitudes and assumptions underpinning coaches, parents, and community sport leaders' behaviours. Transformative learning principles informed the delivery framework with the project reaching 4,222 participants. Research evaluations included multiple case studies, surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups, which confirmed awareness of problematic beliefs. The programme expanded to Regional Sport Organisations (RSOs) and National Sport Organisations (NSOs) culminating in a nationwide rollout. The study highlights the effectiveness of theoretically informed adult behaviour change programmes in junior and youth sport, the benefits of programmes being underpinned by a rigorous pedagogical approach, and the benefits of sport organisations and researchers collaborating to design and deliver sustainable change initiatives that address belief systems underpinning current issues.

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“…Considering Canning et al (2020) and Murphy and Reeves (2021), the relatively high A-TM mean score may reflect the manifestation of the growth A-TM that we seemed to find in the NIF's stated values and organisational mindsets. This finding may also explain one aspect of why the Norwegian sport model differentiates from the talent identification and development models used in other countries (Skille et al, 2017) and how sports in Norway provide attention to children's rights in sports and emphasise inter/intrapersonal competencies in coach education programmes for better coach-athlete relationships (Ellingsen & Danielsen, 2017;Norges Idrettsforbund, 2011).…”

Section: Athlete Talent Mindsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sports Coaches’ Athlete Talent Mindset and Views Regarding Talent Identification in Norway

Nilsen

Sigurjónsson

Pensgaard

et al. 2023

International Sport Coaching Journal

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We investigated coaches’ mindsets of athletic talent as conceptualised by Dweck (athlete talent mindset, A-TM) along with the athlete age at which they believe talent can be identified. We also looked at the age of talent identification in coaches of different A-TM. Using data collected as part of a survey conducted in Norway, the 3,830 participating coaches were men and women between 16 and 83 years of age. Overall, the coaches held a predominantly growth A-TM. However, older coaches, those not born in Norway, and coaches in athletics, gymnastics, and football were found to have a more fixed A-TM. Regarding their views about talent identification age, one fifth of the coaches believe that talent can be seen before 12 years of age, with football, gymnastics, and swimming coaches and those not born in Norway being more prone to detect talent at younger ages. Analyses also showed that the more fixed A-TM coaches believed that they could identify talented athletes at younger ages; however, not all of them reported such talent identification age views. These findings indicate that coaches’ A-TM and views regarding talent identification operate as two separate beliefs, which may be useful for understanding coaches’ early talent identification and development approaches.

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Norwegian Children’s Rights in Sport and Coaches’ Understanding of Talent

Cited by 11 publications

References 36 publications

Children’s right to play sports in a safe and healthy environment

Children’s right to play sports in a safe and healthy environment

Promoting a culture change in junior and youth sport in New Zealand

Sports Coaches’ Athlete Talent Mindset and Views Regarding Talent Identification in Norway

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