377 Research Consortium Scholar Lecture: Sport Research and Public Health—From Contradiction to Policy

This presentation by 2009 Research Consortium Scholar Lecturer Don Sabo, traces the goals, key findings, and policy implications of several decades of nationally-scaled research on gender relations in sport. First, three eras of gender research on sport are identified and their respective theoretical moorings and contributions to policymaking are discussed; i.e., Second Wave feminism, critical feminist analysis, and interdisciplinary postfeminism. Next, key findings from an array of nationally-scaled studies are reviewed in order to show how evidence-based research has challenged domain assumptions about sport and gender among both liberal and conservative thinkers, thereby influencing policy debates. Third, it is argued that closer links between research and policymaking will help to expand the real and potential contributions of sport and physical activity to the well-being of U.S. children and young adults. Academic researchers are enjoined to forge interdisciplinary networks and “town-gown” collaborations in order to conduct studies of sport with the potential to inform public health policy dialogues. Evaluation researchers are encouraged to work with nonprofit and community organizations in order to assess the efficacy of youth sport programs. Finally, some strategies are presented for merging evidence-based sport research with regional, statewide, and national policy initiatives.