“In different sports worlds”: Socialisation among children, coaches, and parents in girls’ and boys’ football teams

Abstract

Taking the sporting triangle as its point of departure, this study aims to investigate the process of socialisation among the children, coaches, and parents who are involved with club-organised girls’ and boys’ football teams. The study was inspired by a sociocultural perspective and by the new sociology of childhood, which views children as actively participating in the construction of childhood. This article draws on data gathered from ethnographic fieldwork conducted during eight months over a two-year period, which included 60 observations of children’s football and interviews with 38 girls and boys (11–12 years old), seven coaches, and eight parents involved with football teams in a Swedish sports club. One overall conclusion about the process of socialisation was that the children, coaches, and parents had different views on what was most valuable in children’s football, and these affected what they expected of each other, as well as how they interacted and behaved. It is concluded that children, coaches, and parents operate in what is referred to as different sports worlds based on different predominating behavioural patterns. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the process of socialisations in the sporting triangle and of how children, coaches, and parents contribute to socialisation in sports.