Background/Purpose Participation in youth sport has become a right of passage for most American children. Given the important potential of this context to promote positive development, it is important to investigate player experiences; however, little research exists that seeks to elicit youth interpretations and meanings within a sports context. The purpose of this study was to examine players' motives for participation in competitive sports, how they feel involvement has aided in their development, and explore negative experiences that have served as detractors to enjoyment.
Method This study utilized a transcendental phenomenological approach to explore and understand the meanings given to social interactions by study participants. Focus groups were conducted with 31 players who currently participate on a competitive youth basketball team. After the data obtained from each focus group was transcribed, multiple levels of coding were used to discover relationships among specific domains resulting in the study's main thematic findings.
Analysis/Results Player responses revealed that participation in youth sport is motivated by two main themes: enjoyment and serving a purpose. Players also felt that participation in sport aided their development in six areas: social competency, self-confidence, self-discipline, conflict resolution, decision-making, and positive work ethic. Lastly, players identified three key constructs that served as detractors to their enjoyment: negative parental involvement, intra-team cliques, and previous coaching experiences.
Conclusions Information gleaned from this study has provided insight as to how youth utilize sport experiences as developmental opportunities and contributed to the continued improvement of coaching pedagogy within youth sport.
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