I skilda idrottsvärldar barn, ledare och föräldrar i flick- och pojkfotboll

Sammanfattning: The sporting triangle represents the relationships among children, leaders and parents in the context of child sport. These relations are of significant importance for the child’s experience of sport. Taking the sporting triangle as its point of departure this thesis aims to describe and understand the socialisation processes among children, leaders and parents in girls’ and boys’ football teams, focusing on how the children's perspective is reflected in practice. The study has an ethnographic research approach and is based on field work carried out over two years in one girls’ and one boys’ football team in an ordinary Swedish sports club. Data were generated through 60 participant observations of the daily life of football, and through interviews with 38 children, 7 leaders and 8 parents. It was found that children, leaders and parents have different views concerning what is most valuable in children’s football, which both affects their behaviour and what they expect of each other. One overall conclusion is that children, leaders and parents are in what is referred to as different sports worlds. The sports worlds of the three groups involved in child football are thus based on different logics and this has implications for the social interactions in the teams. The world of children is based in a social logic, particularly in the value of friends. The world of leaders is based in a sporting logic, more specifically in the value of building a high-performance football player. The world of parents is based in an upbringing logic, particularly in the value of what is good for their own child. The social relationships between the children also show how boys and girls relate to a male standard that exists in children's football. The results are discussed in relation to the significance of generation and gender in child football and to the demand that adults take children's specific needs and desires into account more seriously in sport. The thesis also discusses what might constitute a child perspective and how child football can be adjusted to meet the needs and desires of children. In adopting the child’s perspective there is much to be gained from seeing girls and boys as the social actors they are, instead of seeing them as the next generation of adult football players. The thesis also offers a more developed model of the sporting triangle which highlights the importance of interactions between, as well as among, the groups of girls, boys, leaders and parents, as a starting point for further research within the field of child and youth sport.