American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: September 2006

Creating an Environment for Sportsmanship Outcomes: A Systems Perspective
Mary Sara Wells, Edward Ruddell, & Karen Paisley

Abstract:
Sportsmanship is a component that is increasingly missing in youth sports. Negative experiences resulting from poor sportsmanship may lead children to limit their participation in sports or drop out all together. Parks, recreation, and tourism professionals may look to systems modeling to help develop programs and policies in the hope of counteracting this trend. Systems modeling is an approach used in management that describes a set of interrelated elements and their connections. The current problem with unsportsmanlike attitudes and behaviors in youth sport leagues presents an excellent opportunity to use systems modeling in studying the effectiveness and feasibility of specific policies designed by parks and recreation professionals to increase sportsmanship within their leagues. The purpose of this article is to discuss the efficacy of employing systems modeling to describe how fun and an individual’s intention to continue participating in youth sports may be related to other characteristics of the youth sport environment.

Article category: Sportsmanship in Youth Sports-Part 2