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“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

Nathan, Sally; Kemp, Lynn; Bunde-Birouste, Anne; MacKenzie, Julie; Evers, Clifton; Shwe, Tun Aung

“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 Thumbnail


Authors

Sally Nathan

Lynn Kemp

Anne Bunde-Birouste

Julie MacKenzie

Clifton Evers

Tun Aung Shwe



Abstract

Background


Sport 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®.

Methods


A 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.

Results


Young 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.

Conclusions

The 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.

Citation

Nathan, S., Kemp, L., Bunde-Birouste, A., MacKenzie, J., Evers, C., & Shwe, T. A. (2013). “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. BMC Public Health, 13, Article 399. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-399

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 1, 2013
Publication Date Apr 27, 2013
Deposit Date Oct 19, 2017
Publicly Available Date Oct 19, 2017
Journal BMC Public Health
Electronic ISSN 1471-2458
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 13
Article Number 399
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-399
Keywords Sport-for-development; Community-based intervention; Impact evaluation; Peer relationships; Prosocial behaviour; Cross-cultural relationships
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/714269
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-399
Contract Date Oct 19, 2017

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Copyright Statement
Copyright information regarding this work can be found at the following address: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0




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