Abstract
This thesis outlines research undertaken by formal collaboration between Everton Football Club's Football in the Community (FitC) scheme; Everton in the Community (FitC) and Liverpool John Moores University, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. In recent years, there has been recognition of the influence that English Premier league (EPL) football clubs can have in attracting men to physical activity and health engagement programmes. Despite attempts to align FitC programmes with suitable evaluation procedures, there still remains limited evaluative empirical evidence. '. Study 1 adopted ethnographic principles to explore the effectiveness of, and identify the barriers to, promoting positive health behaviours and messages to male football fans at an EPL football stadium on match days. Results showed that in general, men did not wish to engage in health related behaviours on match days however approaches that did not impose on, nor contaminate, the men's match day experience were more successful. Study 2 adopted a multi-method approach to explore the distinct barriers that hard-to-reach (HTR) male populations encounter when attempting to commit to regular participation in physical activity and health behaviours and to examine the impact of engaging in a 12 week FitC intervention. Economic, environmental and social barriers to engagement in regular physical activity and positive health behaviours are highlighted and specific biopsychosocial effects of engaging in the FitC programme are identified. Study 3 utilised informal semi structured interviews with programme participants to explore the contextual, environmental and psychosocial barriers experienced by men from HTR populations. Psychosocial motivations for programme uptake and the impact of regular engagement in the FitC men's health programme are discussed. It is recommended that commissioning agencies should endorse and fund men's health initiatives delivered in and by professional sports clubs. To maintain participant engagement and maximise improvements to men's health and wellbeing, alterations to current practice and research are discussed.
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