Authors Chris Chard, PhD and doctoral candidate Daniel Wigfield joined the SII podcast to discuss their recently published article in the Sports Innovation Journal.
Participation in sport has been lauded for the myriad benefits provided to youth who engage. Similarly, attendance in school has been identified as a salient contributor to academic success. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to explore the extent to which participation in youth representative (“rep”) hockey in Ontario contributes to avoidable absences from traditional school contexts. Specifically, empirical data from 104 youth rep hockey tournaments, ranging from AE-AAA competitive levels, and the Tyke (7-year-olds) to Midget (17-year-olds) age ranks, were utilized to meet the study’s first purpose. The second purpose was to present an alternative and innovative way youth sport tournaments could be scheduled to minimize school absenteeism. The results of the current investigation show there is merit to the proposed shift in tournament scheduling. Specifically, more than 42,000 avoidable school absences, from the 104 tournaments sampled, could be mitigated with a simple adjustment to tournament schedules.
Download the Full Paper Here: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/sij/article/view/23385/23017
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