دیدگاه های جوانان از داوطلب شدن والدین در ورزش جوانان جامعه  Young people’s perspectives of parent volunteerism in community youth sport

1. Introduction In all sports, volunteers are the lifeblood – ‘‘take away the volunteers and the sport dies’’ (de Cruz, 2005, p. 83). Indeed, the investigation and importance of sport volunteerism has been the focus of several published special issues in the European Journal for Sport Management/European Sport Management Quarterly (1999; 2013) and Sport Management Review (2006). Community sport forms the largest sector of sport volunteers; however, volunteerism at the grassroots level remains relatively understudied relative to elite and professional sport organizations (Cuskelly, 2004). Within the delivery of community youth sport programs, the contributions of parent volunteers are particularly noteworthy and instrumental (Cuskelly, 2005; Nichols, 2005). Yet, the existing research has failed to take into consideration the potential impact of volunteer roles on the family unit. This is surprising given it may influence parental volunteer interest and commitment towards a youth sport organization. Research that seeks to understand the meanings and experiences of parent volunteerism within family life might provide a more holistic understanding of how to better enhance the experiences for the parent volunteer and that of their family. olunteer and that of their family. Moreover, limited research has sought to understand young people’s perspectives of their parents’ volunteer labor within community youth sport organizations. This oversight is unfortunate as there is inherent value when involving young people in the research process, particularly within the family context. As Jeanes (2010) argues, young people may perceive things differently from their parents, and for this reason, it is imperative that young people’s perspectives are understood. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to critically examine young people’s discourse around parental volunteerism in community youth sport organizations. The gender ideology of soft essentialism (Messner, 2011) provided a guiding theoretical concept. An inductive qualitative approach was used that conceptualized the young people as active participants in the research process, capable of speaking on the meaning of their own lives. The context for this research is particularly relevant given that ‘‘millions of children play community-based youth sports every year, and these athletic activities are a key part of the daily lives of many families’’ (Messner & Bozada-Deas, 2009, p. 50).