Research – Page 31 – The Sport Journal

21st Century Sport: Microsystem or Macrosystem?

Authors: Dean Culpepper & Lorraine Killion

Corresponding Author:
Dean Culpepper, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 3011
Commerce, TX 75429
dean.culpepper@tamuc.edu
903.886.5573

Dean Culpepper is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce in the Health and Human Performance Department and Lorraine Killion is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville in the Health and Physical Education Department. Both are active as Sport Psychology Consultants working with elite athletes and teams to increase human performance.

21st Century Sport: Microsystem or Macrosystem?

ABSTRACT
The culture of sport is well defined, and its impact on individuals and cultures can be studied by using an Ecological Systems Theory (ES) approach. ES was developed by Uri Bronfenbrenner to name how particular contexts and their processes overlap, influence, and are influenced by individual members (3, 4, 5). Sport has traditionally been viewed as a microsystem in ES. Sport and the structure of sport have taken on a new character with self-perpetuating motivations and thus may no longer be set apart (16) for individuals live in Sport all the time. The purpose of this research was to examine moral reasoning across groups and settings to support the shift from sport as set aside to an all-pervasive environment. 315 subjects completed a demographic form, the Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory, and the DIT-2. Qualitative follow-up interviews were then conducted among groups to determine themes. A MANOVA (Wilks’ Lambda=.430, p<.005) was carried out with Scheffé post hoc tests to determine differences. Athletes scored lowest (p<.001) and when athletes were removed from the evaluation, Sport Science majors scored equivalently (p<.001) to athletes regarding lower moral reasoning scores. Qualitative interviews revealed that athletes and Sport Science majors spent similar amounts of time thinking, watching, reading, exercising, and discussing sport. These findings may suggest that those involved in sport (whether participating or studying) are operating in a milieu differently from those who are not. They are functioning in an all-pervasive structure or meaning-making system that does shape and has formed how they reason morally. Thus separating oneself from the structure of sport may be difficult. (more…)

U.S. Sports Academy2016-09-20T10:25:01-05:00November 3rd, 2016|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

The Impact of Perceived Value, Satisfaction, Service Quality on Customer Loyalty in Women’s Fitness Clubs

Authors: Jon Lim, Bryan Romsa, & Suzannah Armentrout
Jon Lim is an Associate Professor of Sport Management at the Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Bryan Romsa is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at the South Dakota State University.
Suzannah Armentrout is a Professor of Sport Management at the Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Corresponding Author:
Jon Lim, Ed.D.
Minnesota State University, Mankato
1400 Highland Center
Mankato, MN 56001
jon.lim@mnsu.edu
507-389-5231

ABSTRACT
While the importance of customer loyalty has been recognized in the marketing literature, empirical research on the antecedents of customer loyalty and their relative importance to predict loyalty in the health and fitness club context has been lacking, especially for women-only clubs. Thus, this study investigated the impact of customer perceived value, satisfaction, and service quality on customer loyalty in women-only health and fitness clubs. The participants for this study consisted of 221 adults who were current members at women-only health and fitness clubs in a major metropolitan area in the Midwest. The results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that customer perceived value, satisfaction, and service quality significantly influence customers’ psychological commitment and behavioral intentions of membership renewal and customer referrals. Therefore, the higher customer perceived value, satisfaction, and service quality, the higher customer loyalty. The findings suggest that customer loyalty can be generated through improving customer value, satisfaction, and service quality.

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U.S. Sports Academy2016-09-20T10:25:55-05:00October 27th, 2016|Research, Sports Health & Fitness|Comments Off

Psychological Determinants of Burnout, Illness and Injury among Elite Junior Athletes

Authors: F. Moen, K. Myhre and Ø. Sandbakk

Corresponding Author:
Frode Moen
E-mail address: frmoe@online.no, Tel. : +47 932 487 50
Postal address: Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

Frode Moen is currently the head manager of the Olympic Athlete program in central Norway, where he also has a position as a coach / mental trainer for elite athletes and coaches. He also is an associate professor at the Department of Education at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He previously has worked as a teacher in high school where sport was his major subject, and he has been a coach for the national team in Nordic combined in Norway for several years. Frode received his Ph.D. in coaching and performance psychology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research focuses mainly on coaching in business, coaching in sport, communication, performance psychology and relationship issues.

Psychological Determinants of Burnout, Illness and Injury among Elite Junior Athletes

ABSTRACT
This article looks at how psychological variables such as passion, perceived performance, affect, worries and working alliance are associated with athlete burnout and illness and injuries among junior athletes in sport. A sample of 356 junior elite athletes from different sports such as cross country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined, shooting, ice-hockey, ice-skating, ski jumping, alpine skiing, cycling, track and field, football, orienteering, handball, football and volleyball participated in the investigation. Our results show that harmonic passion, perceived performance, positive and negative affect, worry and working alliance are uniquely associated with athlete burnout, whereas sex, perceived performance and working alliance uniquely are associated with illness and injuries. The results are discussed in regard of applied implications and possible future research.

Keywords: passion, performance, stress, worries, athlete burnout

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U.S. Sports Academy2016-08-22T07:57:01-05:00August 16th, 2016|Research, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off

Coaching environments and student-athletes: Perceptions of support, climate and autonomy

Authors: Jeff Noble, Mark Vermillion*, and Kewa Foster

*Corresponding Author:
Mark Vermillion, PhD
Wichita State University
Department of Sport Management
Wichita, KS 67260-0127
Mark.vermillion@wichita.edu
316-978-5444

ABSTRACT
Understanding how athletes interact with coaches is an important topic for not only increasing performance, but also for managing developmental dynamics so often associated with coaching. As a result, the purpose of the research is to examine student-athletes’ perceptions of coaching environments as related to autonomy-supportive motivational climates. Division I (formerly known as Division I AAA) student-athletes were surveyed (n=143) as part of a larger data collection process by the athletic department. Self-determination theory is applied to examine motivation, autonomy, and support, while psychosocial student development theory is used to influence variable selection relating to the student-athlete population. Statistical results indicate an overall positive perception of coaching environments by student-athletes and no differences based upon gender. Regression analyses indicate only 28% of the variance is explained by current variables/questions on athletic department survey instrument with variables of gender, type of sport played, and student classification having little to no statistically significant impact. In accordance with previous research, coaches have the ability to create a positive atmosphere and in this study student-athletes had an overall positive view of their coaches’ ability to develop autonomy-supportive team climates. However, many personal-level factors could account for the large percent of variance not explained by statistical analyses in the current study.

Keywords: student-athletes, motivation, coaching climate, self-determination

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U.S. Sports Academy2016-07-06T14:03:29-05:00July 15th, 2016|Research, Sports Coaching|Comments Off

Big 12 Football: Competitive Balance Before and After Realignment

Authors: Jeffrey S. Noble*, Martin M. Perline, G. Clayton Stoldt

Institutional Affiliation of Authors: Wichita State University

*Corresponding Author:
Jeff Noble, Ed.D
Department of Sport Management
Wichita State University
1845 Fairmount
Wichita, Kansas 67260-0127
Email: jeffrey.noble@wichita.edu
Phone: (316)978-5442

Abstract
Conference realignment among athletic programs that compete at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been prevalent among various institutions over the past decade, particularly among institutions that sponsor football. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects on competitive balance when a conference lost member institutions who chose to join other conferences, and then added new institutions to replace those which had departed. Specifically, the effects on competitive balance in football in the Big 12 Conference, which lost four members and replaced with two additional schools, were examined. Using the standard deviation as our measure of competitive balance it was discovered that competition among the football programs were not as competitively balanced as before the initial realignment began.

Keywords: college athletics, conference realignment, economic inequality

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U.S. Sports Academy2016-06-14T15:49:50-05:00July 8th, 2016|Research, Sports Management|Comments Off