actively engaging women and girls: addressing the...
TRANSCRIPT
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Actively Engaging Women and Girls:Addressing the Psycho-Social Factors
A Supplement to Canadian Sport for Life
New Resource Launch!
Vicki HarberLouise HumbertLori JohnstoneSydney Millar
Penny WerthnerCS4L Summit, 2012
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Resource Development and Overview
Sydney Millar
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It is time to create optimal
conditions and systems that
support women and girls
to be active at all
stages of participation and
competition, and in all roles.
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Advisory Committee
• Sylvie Beliveau, Canadian Soccer Association
• Vickie Harber, University of Alberta
• Louise Humbert, University of Saskatchewan
• Penny Werthner, University of Ottawa
• Karin Lofstrom, CAAWS
• Sydney Millar, CAAWS
• Lori Johnstone, Project Manager
• With leadership by CAAWS and funding from
Sport Canada
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Premise
• Gender-based differences and qualities
related to psycho-social factors affect the
development and sustained involvement
of a participant/athlete/leader.
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Psycho-social factors
• Affect an individual psychologically or
socially
• Interactions between people and their
social environments, involving
psychological processes
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Purpose
• Increase awareness about the
experiences of women and girls
• Provide recommendations that address
the psycho-social factors influencing
female athlete development, leadership
and lifelong participation in sport and
physical activity
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Desired outcomes
Are lifelong active participants who transition through relevant participation LTAD stages as their life commitments,
responsibilities and goals evolve
Are engaged and valued leaders in sport, physical activity,
recreation, education, health, research, business, government,
etc.
Experience the benefits of optimal health and positive development
Are successful athletes and competitors who experience the
benefits and positive development gained through
competitive sport
Environments that support the development of physically
literate, active and healthy women and girls who:
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This resource is for everyoneDecision makers, myth breakers & action takers
• Sport and physical activity organizations• Leaders, coaches and officials• Educators and school administrators• Health promoters• Parents and family members• Community decision makers• Governments• Corporate Canada• Academics and researchers• Media
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Actively engaging women and girls~Scope of resource~
I. Intro to CS4L and LTAD
II. Benefits and barriers, need for a
comprehensive approach
III. Psycho-social factors
IV. CS4L/LTAD through the gender lens
V. Recommendations for action
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Everyone has a role to play
1. Effective policies to ensure gender equity
2. Promote and demonstrate the value of
women and girls in the system
3. Develop and strengthen capacity to
support the active engagement of women
and girls
4. Strengthen partnerships and collaborative
action to influence environments for
women and girls
5. Support, conduct and disseminate gender-
specific research and evaluation.
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Targeted recommendations
• National and Provincial/Territorial Sport and Multisport Organizations
• High Performance Coaches and Leaders • Community Program Leaders and
Coaches • Educators and School Administrators • Families and Caregivers • Recommendations to Make Sport and
Physical Activity More Welcoming to Sexual and Gender Diversity
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Additional Resources
From CAAWS…• Women & Leadership Workshops
�Aboriginal Women & Leadership• Women & Leadership Network• Women on Boards Resource• On the Move – getting girls active!
�Aboriginal, Newcomer, Racialized/Minority• Mothers in Motion• Sport & Physical Activity for Women 55-70+• Addressing Homophobia in Sport
Other…• The Female Athlete Perspective (CS4L)• Coaching Female Athletes (CABC)
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Overview of the Socio-Ecological Model
Psycho-Social Factors and PE
Dr. Louise Humbert
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Think of a woman of any age engaging in physical activity
or sport . . .
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The Relevance of an Ecological Approach
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“There is nothing so practical as a good theory”
Kurt Lewin (1951)
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Social-ecological model of influences on physical activity and
sport participation
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If we use such an approachwe can . . .
• Improve our understanding of the
complex and multi-dimensional factors
that facilitate and constrain women's
and girls’ activity decisions and
behaviours. (Froehlich-Chow, 2010; Gyurcski et al., 2006)
• Shift from a “focus on single issues, risk
factors, and linear causality, towards a
holistic concern to develop supportive
contexts . . .” (Dooris et. al., 2007)
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Intrapersonal: Characteristics of the individual
• Competence
� Do I have the skills I
need to participate?
• Confidence
� Will I stand out, will I
fit in
� Will I be “exposed”
• Autonomy
� Will I be able to
make choices?
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“It feels so good to be good enough”
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Interpersonal: Formal and Informal Social Networks
• Importance of
“attachment” and
relationships
� Friends
� Adults
• Family interest, Role
Models
• The “challenge of
competition”
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“If I could go with my friends, I would be so there”
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Environmental: Within and between organizations, where and
when, social climate
• Safe spaces-
� What is it like to be in
this place?
� Protected from harm
• Genuine Opportunities
• Where
� Proximity to their home
• When
� After school, care-giving
may be an issue
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“I belong here”
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Policy: Local, provincial and federal, guidelines, regulations,
laws . . .• Addressing barriers
� Access: opportunities,
facilities, scheduling
� Space
� Learn to opportunities• Allocation of resources
� Financial, Equipment,
Human, Media attention• Attractive to girls
� Girls only options
� Images
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In physical education . . .
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Many of them have a dream . . .
“I wish that everyone could go to phys-ed,
do the best they can, have fun and feel
comfortable. I know that sounds like a
dream, but I think feeling comfortable is
so important. If you don’t feel
comfortable you can’t be yourself, you
can’t do as well, you probably won’t join
in”
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Intrapersonal: We must teach . . .
• A strong foundation of movement
expertise will open up many doors . . .
� Physical Education
� LTAD model
• Increased opportunities to practice skills
with high rates of success
• Many girls may need to “catch up”
• A balanced program is key
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“At this age they start to avoid phys-ed; when
you are out in the middle of a game and you
don’t have the skills, you get laughed at because
everyone is watching. This does not happen
anymore because everyone is in partners or by
themselves, everyone has a piece of equipment,
everyone is working on their own skills,
everyone is getting the ball. I teach the skills
they need to participate. If we do play a game, it
is in small groups. The changes have been so
positive with the girls, they feel so much better
about what they are doing”
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Feeling exposed
• The impact of societal expectations regarding the female body are crippling for many . . .
• Physical activity settings often put girls and young women into situations in which they feel “exposed”
• Understand the importance of body image and “social physique anxiety”
How do I feel in and about my body
in a physical activity setting?
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Interpersonal:
• Positive social
atmosphere– Focus on fun &
friends
– Welcome new
students
– Cooperative games
and teambuilding
– Switching groups
regularly
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The importance of fun . . .
“If I was the one in charge
of phys-ed you know the
one that makes all of the
decisions, I would tell
them to make physical
education fun. The best
thing we could promise
someone is that they
would have fun. Fun is
the most important
thing.”
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Environment
• Who belongs in the
physical education
class and how do
they know?
• What content is
valued?
• Are their
opportunities for
choice of content,
challenge?
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Environment . . .
“This year our teacher respects us and
treats us better than anyone ever did. She
doesn’t treat us like we are lazy and not
good at stuff. She has respect for us, she
teaches us so many things, and she is so
friendly and everything. You know what it
is? She acts like she is excited about what
we are doing . . . and we are not on a team
or anything---- for the first time I feel like I
belong here”
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Policy: An all girls option
Teachers of the “all female courses”
attributed the positive environment to the
absence of boys: “It was so nice to see the
girls relax and enjoy without feeling
pressure from the boys…behaviours like
giggling, helplessness, placating to the
boys immediately returned when we had
to join with a boys’ class one day…almost
instant change…the girls themselves
noticed…”
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The future . . .“For as long as I can remember I have
hated phys-ed, but this year has been
really different. I hope that every person
has the opportunity to participate in a
program like this. Because of this program
I have had the chance to learn new
activities, I had fun, I made friends and I
am way more active. I doubt that I will take
PE after grade 10, but at least I won’t have
a memory of how much I hated it like my
mom does.”
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Psycho-Social Factors and High Performance Sport
Dr. Penny Werthner
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Psychological and Sociological Factors
Psychosocial factors - an interaction
between an individual and her social
environment, involving psychological
processes:• Autonomy and control
• Involvement and participation
• Cohesion, trust, belonging
• Diversity and tolerance
• Social support, positive feedback
• Safety, security
• Role conflicts, life demands
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Psychological and Sociological Factors
These factors affect girls and women of all
ages, their health, their participation, athletic
development, performance, and leadership
• OUR VALUES – What do we value about
women’s sport? What do you believe is
appropriate and inappropriate for female
participation ? Yes to women athletes?
What about women as national coaches?
• SKILL DEVELOPMENT - Are women athletes
getting the best coaches? The best teachers
of physical skills?
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Psychological and Sociological Factors
• Body image issues, at the competitive/high
performance levels – disordered eating, need to
look a certain way, wear certain types of clothing
• Social influences of teachers, peers, coaches? – Are
we creating an environment where girls learn how
to be competitive in a healthy way?
• Competitive settings – travel – safety issues,
vulnerability of young women athletes
• Homophobia
• Policies – resource allocation (financial and human)
discrepancies between women’s teams and men’s
team? Coach training? Androcentric sport system?
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Psychological and Sociological Factors
To create a more inclusive world of sport
and physical activity – for young female
participants, women athletes, older
women, women coaches - what do we do?
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Psychological and Sociological Factors
• Must understand the impact of these factors
• Create programs that work for young women who want
to become competitive athletes - physiological/
psychological/sociological considerations
• Coaches must understand how to coach women athletes
being aware of the differences in maturation, skill
development, communication (gender and still
individualize)
• Create new ways of looking at coach education – formal
and informal ways of learning – specific to coaching
women
• Increase involvement of women as leaders - as coaches,
as national coaches, as leaders of sport programs
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Key Themes and Findings from the Resource
Sydney Millar
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Calling all decision makers, myth breakers & action takers:
• Comprehensive approach is required to
create optimal conditions
• Many psycho-social factors are common
across the lifespan
• Untapped potential of on and off ramps
• Women leaders need to be recruited,
retained & supported in ways that
matter
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Calling all decision makers, myth breakers & action takers:
• Powerful influences of family, cultural
roles and expectations
• Critical role of physical education
• Urgent need to create and align well -
designed programs, classes, delivery
systems
• Value of competition and goal setting
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Calling all decision makers, myth breakers & action takers:
• Willingness to accept diversity and
create welcoming environments
• Need more gender-specific research &
evaluation
• Role of media and marketers
• CS4L/LTAD is a catalyst for change,
fuelled by kaizen
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Organizations have to demonstrate
a willingness to provide support to
women [and girls] during various
stages of the life cycle, and
differently than they may for men.
(Marshall, Demers & Sharp, 2010, p.197)
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CS4L/LTAD’s 10 Key FactorsThrough a Gender Lens
Dr. Vicki Harber
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FUNdamentals
• Physical Literacy
• opportunities to experience a wide
range of FMS within a wide range of
environments is limited
• particularly for young girls
• free play and deliberate
play is needed
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Specialization• early specialization
associated with
numerous negative
outcomes
• young girls attracted to
some sports (e.g. figure
skating, gymnastics,
synchro swimming,
dance/ballet)
• provide transfer/
transition opportunities
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Developmental Age
• wide range of impact of early or late
maturation on young girls
• influence on self-esteem, peer
acceptance, unwanted attention
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Trainability
• windows of trainability
• opportunities for appropriate exposure
to speed, stamina, strength, skill
acquisition, etc
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Physical, Mental, Cognitive & Emotional Development
• holistic approach to athlete
development
• age- and developmentally-appropriate
programs
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Periodization
• annual training, competition and
recovery plan
• beyond the physiological, what are the
best ways to support our female
athletes?
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Calendar Planning for Competition
• what is the right amount and kind of
competition for our developing female
athletes?
• balancing growth & development with
becoming physically literate, preferred
sport, school, friends, family…..
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The 10 year rule? Excellence Takes Time
• the search for talent
• talent identification
• talent development
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System Alignment and Integration
• within sport (athletes, coaches,
administrators, PSO’s, NSO’s,
regional/municipal sport clubs)
• outside sport (schools/education sector,
recreational sector, health sector)
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Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)
• what works today may not work
tomorrow
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Questions, Discussion
New resource will be available on the
CAAWS and CS4L websites!