Children’s participation in youth sport is ubiquitous in UK society, yet high levels of attrition are evident in adolescence (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2012a). This attrition has been credited, in part, to questionable coaching behaviours that derogate children’s experiences in youth sport. Using self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002) as a guiding framework, the purpose of this thesis was to better understand the coach-related antecedents of children’s adherence and attrition in youth sport by examining the motivational processes that contribute to their engagement versus disaffection. In study one, children’s perceptions of autonomy, competence and relatedness, or psychological need satisfaction, were examined alongside in their tendency to exhibit high levels of cognitive and affective engagement. In study two, a mediation model was tested whereby coach autonomy support and control were hypothesised to exhibit positive indirect effects on children’s engagement and disaffection in youth sport respectively via both psychological need satisfaction and psychological need thwarting. In study three, the previous study was replicated and extended with three waves of data. The final study of this thesis examined the interaction of coach autonomy support and structure to extend the findings of the previous studies. Overall, the findings suggest that structure and autonomy support from coaches will help to safeguard children’s adherence to youth sport because they jointly facilitate psychological need satisfaction and engagement. In contrast, control from coaches is likely to lead to children’s attrition in youth sport since such provisions undermine the psychological needs and produce disaffection.

Local sport and physical activity strategy offer a plan for governing and exploiting resources with the objective of stimulating interest and increasing participation in sport. The impact of ‘strategy’ can be inconsistent and little is known of the personal and contextual factors that influence strategy effectiveness. Multiple programmes within a local sport and physical activity strategy were evaluated using a mixed method design through interviews and questionnaires with both programme leaders and participants. The data were generated between 2007 and 2012 and analysed using the Realistic Evaluation framework of Pawson and Tilley (1997). The findings show that the Strategy activities offer a foundation for instigating social connectedness and a mechanism for personal and professional development. These mechanisms were triggered when individual, and cultural needs were accommodated. Other outcomes explored within the thesis include the transfer of skills, the creation of safer and stronger communities and the improvement of health and wellbeing. Collectively, the data helped generate explanations or theory for these outcomes and formed useful information upon which strategic decisions were made. Further, there is critical commentary about the research position and its application in a sport development context.

No description available.

In the mid-to-late 1980's, so called 'rust belt' cities in the UK began to respond to their industrial decline with local economic development strategies aimed at boosting employment. The strategies involved efforts to diversify traditional manufacturing heartlands into new service sector economies. One feature of the approach was the often rather implausible looking project of creating, out of unpromising material, a new urban sport and tourism industry (Roche 1992b). Faced with economic and industrial decline in the 1980's, Sheffield. traditionally a manufacturing and steel producing city, forged sport and tourism together as an alternative solution to regenerate its local economy. It was believed that investment in sporting infrastructure, and the staging of the XVI World Student Games would derive long-term economic and social benefits to all sections of the community (Price 1991). Criticised as reactive and quasi-strategic at the time, the longer-term assessment of these radical investment decisions has been overlooked. The value, role and function of major events in the local UK economic development process is therefore less than fully understood. Challenging the traditional economic base theory relationship between the manufacturing and service sectors of an economy, this thesis investigates whether investment in major events has been a rational approach to assist Sheffield's process of economic development. Utilising Williams' (1997) hypothesis that major events act as basic economic activities; by attracting and retaining external expenditure from sports tourists, the aim of the thesis is to identify whether events act as 'catalysts' to or 'motors' of local economic growth. Through the application of an expenditure based multiplier approach, five major events, staged in Sheffield between 1996 and 1998, are estimated to have had a collective impact of £10.4 million over a period of twenty-one event days (£495,00 per day). The findings of the research reveal that the staging of major sports events has a significant short-term impact on the local economy. The impact is conditional upon the type, status and duration of the event staged and the , nature of the visitor groups attracted. Extrapolating the results to all events staged in Sheffield since 1990, the thesis estimates that nearly E32 million has been injected into the local economy. On the basis of the results, the research argues that major events are an important part of the consumer service sector of a local economy. As consumer services they act to stimulate economic growth by importing consumers. While major events are shown to function as basic sector economic activities and catalysts, they are not in themselves large enough to 'motor' a local economy, but are key instruments in diversifying the local economic base. In conclusion, the thesis recognises that the academic assessment of major events in the UK is relatively immature, and it highlights the need for rigorous evaluation of the broader cost-benefit parameters associated with staging major events. Sporting, cultural, political, social and environmental impacts of major events are a few of the themes lughlighted as areas of future research.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The provision of outdoor recreation in a modern society has become an increasingly demanding and controversial undertaking. To provide an effective recreational strategy it is necessary to identify the needs of the people in order to provide intelligent planning to satisfy their requirements. When recreational pressures are directed towards protected areas such as National Parks, this task becomes more difficult and complex owing to the diverse and conflicting functions that these resources have to support. To provide both conservation and recreational opportunities planning should evaluate both the benefits and the conflicts that these uses generate as any developments take place. This study focuses on the evaluation of the recreational use of Mount Olympus National Park. Its aim was to incorporate these findings into the Master Plan for the management of the area. The data provided from on-site surveys in the area permitted the description of the visitor socio-economic characteristics and their trip patterns. Visitor attitudes both to the recreational opportunities provided in the area and to the proposals for the improvement of recreation provision in it were also identified. The recreational use of Mount Olympus was then evaluated by applying both the Travel-Cost and the Contingent Valuation methods on the survey data. This provided a method for checking the validity of the results. The Travel-Cost method produced values ranging between 65,002,000 and 74,599,000 GDrs for 1990 and 42,183,750 and 65,081,100 GDrs for 1992 depending on the functional form used for the development of the model. On the other hand the Contingent Valuation method produced a value of 30,311,000 GDrs for 1990 and of 53,830,350 GDrs (area in its present condition) and of 54,162,150 GDrs (area after the provision of more facilities) for 1992. Finally the study highlighted the importance and the potential use of the available economic information to assist in the development of a planning system for the design and the provision of recreation. Some limitations in the Mount Olympus Master Plan were identified and a proposal for the incorporation of the new information into the recreational aspects of Mount Olympus in a reformulated Master Plan was proposed.