Digital education can impact how adults view behavior at youth sports events, according to a new study out of Sweden’s Umeå University.
Niklas Lovefall — the founder of the Sport Values training platform and a referee according to his LinkedIn page — wrote a master’s thesis in education examining the impact of a 20-minute training module developed by a regional hockey organization.
He conducted a survey of 11K parents across 19 sports, plus three waves of hockey parents over two years that maxed out at close to 1K — both pretty substantial sample sizes in the grand scheme of industry reports.
73% said their understanding of how their behavior impacts kids increased “greatly” or “very greatly”
75% said the same about young coaches; 61% about officials
Hockey parents said referee abuse dropped from 3.26 (out of 10) to 2.25 after Year 1
Hockey parents saw more modest drop in coach abuse (3.68 to 3.23 over two years)
Lovefall also found parent behavior gets worse as kids get older basically as a rule. Hockey saw the worst behavior by a wide margin and behavior was worse in boys’ sports than girls’. Parents in individual sports were better behaved than team sport parents, but the survey found young coaches can face challenges in the former due to how closely they work with families.
FWIW: The author disclosed a business interest and there was no control group. The survey also relies heavily on parents — a group that is likely not the most reliable narrator.
A whopping 55% of respondents claimed they had never seen bad behavior at youth sports events before viewing the module. Coaches consistently said behavior was worse than parents. And a 2020 report surveying kids regarding the impact of mandatory education for Hockey Canada families found little change in parent pressure and support or athlete enjoyment.
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