“We wouldn’t of made friends if we didn’t come to Football United”:the impacts of a football program on young people’s peer, prosocial and cross-cultural relationships

Abstract

BackgroundSport as a mechanism to build relationships across cultural boundaries and to build positive interactions among young people has often been promoted in the literature. However, robust evaluation of sport-for-development program impacts is limited. This study reports on an impact evaluation of a sport-for-development program in Australia, Football United®.MethodsA quasi-experimental mixed methods design was employed using treatment partitioning (different groups compared had different levels of exposure to Football United). A survey was undertaken with 142 young people (average age of 14.7 years with 22.5% of the sample comprising girls) in four Australian schools. These schools included two Football United and two Comparison schools where Football United was not operating. The survey instrument was composed of previously validated measures, including emotional symptoms, peer problems and relationships, prosocial behaviour, other-group orientation, feelings of social inclusion and belonging and resilience. Face to face interviews were undertaken with a purposeful sample (n = 79) of those who completed the survey. The participants in the interviews were selected to provide a diversity of age, gender and cultural backgrounds.ResultsYoung people who participated in Football United showed significantly higher levels of other-group orientation than a Comparison Group (who did not participate in the program). The Football United boys had significantly lower scores on the peer problem scale and significantly higher scores on the prosocial scale than boys in the Comparison Group. Treatment partitioning analyses showed positive, linear associations between other-group orientation and total participation in the Football United program. A lower score on peer problems and higher scores on prosocial behaviour in the survey were associated with regularity of attendance at Football United. These quantitative results are supported by qualitative data analysed from interviews.ConclusionsThe study provides evidence of the effects of Football United on key domains of peer and prosocial relationships for boys and other-group orientation for young people in the program sites studied. The effects on girls, and the impacts of the program on the broader school environment and at the community level, require further investigation.

Resilience in Context: A Brief and Culturally Grounded Measure for Syrian Refugee and Jordanian Host‐Community Adolescents

“…There are a few widely used measures of resilience that could potentially be adapted for use with Arabic‐speaking youth, such as the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC; Connor & Davidson, ), the Resilience Scale (Wagnild & Young, ), the Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., ), and the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM; Ungar & Liebenberg, ). The CD‐RISC, the Resilience Scale, and the CYRM have all been used with refugee populations (Klasen et al., ; Ssenyonga, Owens, & Olema, ; Thabet & Thabet, ; Wright et al., ), with CD‐RISC and CYRM applied to adolescent refugees specifically (Abualkibash & Lera, ; Ghannam & Thabet, ; Nathan et al., ; Ziaian, de Anstiss, Antoniou, Baghurst, & Sawyer, ). However, most measures of resilience—including CD‐RISC, the Resilience Scale, and the Brief Resilience Scale—were originally developed with adults and/or are solely implemented with adults (Windle et al., ).…”

Being Able to Play: Experiences of Social Inclusion and Exclusion Within a Football Team of People Seeking Asylum

“…There is no denying that sport in Australia is a "key site of culture production and social prestige" (Spaaij, 2015, p. 303) and some research demonstrates that sports programmes aimed at newly arrived populations can be important platforms for social capital, identity building, feelings of belonging, leadership and pro-social behaviour to occur (see Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues, 2007;Nathan et al, 2010Nathan et al, , 2013Palmer, 2009;Spaaij, 2012Spaaij, , 2015. However, whilst the rhetoric about the power of sport to act as a vehicle for social inclusion is strong, the evidence is largely anecdotal and there is often a conflict between policy and practice Northcote & Casimiro, 2009;Spaaij, 2013).…”

Sport and children's nutrition: what can we learn from the junior Australian football setting?

“…For example, the development of social ties comprise an essential source of enjoyment and intrinsic motivation for children, both of which are key predictors of continuation behaviour (Fraser- Thomas, Côté, & Deakin, 2008;Goral, 2010;Kirk & MacPhail, 2003;Ullrich-French & Smith, 2006). Moreover, social health benefits can be observed in the way that sport participation encourages interactions between interracial peers and improves attitudes toward cultural and political issues (Hartmann, Sullivan, & Nelson, 2011;Nathan et al, 2013). If we consider the potential physical, psychological and social health benefits associated with children's sport, it is arguable that sport has a considerable capacity to positively impact children's holistic health.…”