A reflection on reflection
- Authors: Smith, Patricia
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Primary voices K-6 Vol. 10, no. 4 (2002), p. 31-34
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- Description: Reflects on the articles in this themed issue on reflective practice. Notes that these teacher/authors have been influenced by prior learning, past experience, feelings, attitudes, values, the school constraints on the learning environment, and their own assumptions about teaching. Describes how teachers have formed a learning community to increase awareness of reflective teaching.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000133
Climbing over the rocks in the road to student engagement and learning in a challenging high school in Australia
- Authors: Smyth, John , Fasoli, Lyn
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Research Vol. 49, no. 3 (2007), p. 273-295
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP0665569
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP0208022
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- Description: Background There is increasing evidence that schools internationally are not meeting the needs of increasing numbers of young people, especially those at the secondary level, and whose backgrounds have placed them at disadvantage. The evidence is that significant numbers of young people are becoming disconnected from school. While the official term for this is 'disengagement', it seems that official educational policy responses to these tendencies, far from 'fixing' the problem, seem to be exacerbating it. Current policy preoccupations that emphasize accountability, greater parental choice of schools and a more prescriptive curriculum can present difficulties for young people, particularly those from challenging backgrounds. There may be a mismatch between formal educational policy, and the lived experiences at the level of the school and classroom for the most vulnerable young people. Purpose This paper reports on a single instance of a high school that embarked upon a process of reinventing itself in respect of the importance of relationships and 'relational power' for students over their learning. The paper examines what the teachers and students had to say about the efficacy of this school-based reform. Sample The case-study school was located in an area of extreme social disadvantage in which young people had diminished educational expectations. The research involved observations and interviews with a small sample of stakeholders and focus groups with students (13-16-year-olds). Design and method The study was an ethnographic case study of a single secondary school conducted over a five-week continuous period. It used 'embedded interviews' involving observation of in-class teaching prior to extensive 1-hour interviews with teachers and students' focus groups. All interviews were recorded. Detailed field notes were kept of classroom observations and other activities, including school assemblies, staff meetings and reflections on informal conversations held during teaching breaks in the staffroom. Results and conclusions Positive outcomes emerged from a context where fair boundaries were established and in which students could see school as a place where they could experience fun in their learning. The process was by no means complete, but the school felt that it had found a more efficacious way to move forward and the students made this clear in their statements about what the school was attempting to do with them. Key to these positive outcomes was a commitment to placing relationships between students, teachers and parents at the centre of everything the school did.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003005579
A high school teacher's experience of local school management : A case of the 'system behaving badly towards teachers'
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Education Vol. 47, no. 3 (2003), p. 265-282
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- Description: The move to local school management (LSM) in its various formations is one of the most significant educational policy moves to occur in recent times in western countries. Although something is known about the effects on governance, budgeting and resource decision making, relatively little is known about the rhetorical and actual ways teachers' work is affected. Even the proponents admit this, albeit in terms of the little known relay effect on student learning. Drawing on the narrative biography of a single high school teacher, as part of a larger multi-sited ethnography, this study revealed the level of policy incoherence to be such that most of the worst excesses of accountability and marketisation accompanying LSM were minimised. Emerging from a deeply held set of pedagogical values and convictions, this instance confirmed a robust view of teacher identity as lying beyond those of victim construction.
- Description: 2003003527
Epidemiology of injury and illness in 153 Australian international-level rowers over eight international seasons
- Authors: Trease, Larissa , Wilkie, Kellie , Lovell, Greg , Drew, Michael , Hooper, Ivan
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 54, no. 21 (2020), p. 1288-1293
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Aim To report the epidemiology of injury and illness in elite rowers over eight seasons (two Olympiads). Methods All athletes selected to the Australian Rowing Team between 2009 and 2016 were monitored prospectively under surveillance for injury and illness. The incidence and burden of injury and illness were calculated per 1000 athlete days (ADs). The body area, mechanism and type of all injuries were recorded and followed until the resumption of full training. We used interrupted time series analyses to examine the association between fixed and dynamic ergometer testing on rowers' injury rates. Time lost from illness was also recorded. Results All 153 rowers selected over eight seasons were observed for 48 611 AD. 270 injuries occurred with an incidence of 4.1-6.4 injuries per 1000 AD. Training days lost totalled 4522 (9.2% AD). The most frequent area injured was the lumbar region (84 cases, 1.7% AD) but the greatest burden was from chest wall injuries (64 cases, 2.6% AD.) Overuse injuries (n=224, 83%) were more frequent than acute injuries (n=42, 15%). The most common activity at the time of injury was on-water rowing training (n=191, 68). Female rowers were at 1.4 times the relative risk of chest wall injuries than male rowers; they had half the relative risk of lumbar injuries of male rowers. The implementation of a dynamic ergometers testing policy (Concept II on sliders) was positively associated with a lower incidence and burden of low back injury compared with fixed ergometers (Concept II). Illness accounted for the greatest number of case presentations (128, 32.2% cases, 1.2% AD). Conclusions Chest wall and lumbar injuries caused training time loss. Policy decisions regarding ergometer testing modality were associated with lumbar injury rates. As in many sports, illness burden has been under-recognised in elite Australian rowers. ©
Policy research and 'damaged teachers' : Towards an epistemologically respectful paradigm
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Waikato Journal of Education Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 263-281
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- Description: This paper canvasses one of the most debilitating issues currently disfiguring schools – the absent voices of teachers in the policy reform of schooling. This is a phenomenon that has afflicted schooling around the world for more than three decades, and it is not without effects. The escalating levels of student disaffection, alienation, violence, disengagement and ‘dropping out’ are not unconnected to the marginalisation of teachers and the disrespectful and distrustful ways in which they have been treated by policy makers, politicians and a largely hostile media. What is advanced in its place in this paper is a way of conducting research that restores trust through acknowledging and celebrating the distinctive repertoires of knowledge teachers and students possess, and points to the way in which a more respectful policy paradigm might be re-invented.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000756
Families, cultural resources and the digital divide : ICTs and educational (dis)advantage
- Authors: Angus, Lawrence , Snyder, Ilana , Sutherland-Smith, Wendy
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Education Vol. 47, no. 1 (2003), p. 18-39
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- Description: By concentrating on cases of family engagement with information communication technologies at a very local level, this paper tries to illustrate that issues related to 'access' and social disadvantage require extremely sophisticated and textured accounts of the multiple ways in which interrelated critical elements and various social, economic and cultural dimensions of disadvantage come into play in different contexts. Indeed, to draw a simple dichotomy between the technology haves and have-nots in local settings is not particularly generative. It may be the case that, even when people from disadvantaged backgrounds manage to gain access to technology, they remain relatively disadvantaged.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000499
Introducing differential kinematics to mechanical engineering students
- Authors: Sultan, Ibrahim
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education Vol. 37, no. 3 (2009), p. 210-222
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- Description: Differential kinematics offers a simplified alternative to closed-form input-output equations needed to study the geometrical behaviour of linkages. For most linkages, these closed-form equations are either too messy or not possible to obtain, a fact that sometimes reflects negatively on how mechanical engineering students perceive the subject of mechanism analysis. On the other hand, differential models can easily be utilised in numerical methods designed to encourage these students to tackle even more difficult problems than currently being considered in academic programmes. In this paper, an approach is presented to facilitate this process. The mathematical procedure is based on the use of matrices referred to as kinematic Jacobians. The determinants of these matrices offer invaluable insights into the linkage mobility. These matrices are explained and used in a practice numerical example.
- Description: 2003008219
Primary school teacher perceived self-efficacy to teach fundamental motor skills
- Authors: Callea, Micarl , Spittle, Michael , O'Meara, James , Casey, Meghan
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Research in Education Vol. , no. 79 (2008), p. 67-75
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- Description: Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) are a part of the school curricula, yet many Australian primary-age children are not mastering FMS. One reason may be a lack of perceived self-efficacy of primary teachers to teach FMS. This study investigated the level of perceived self-efficacy of primary school teachers to teach FMS in Victoria, Australia. A cross-sectional survey, based on the Victorian Institute of Teaching Standards of Professional Practice, was used to sample sixty-five pre-service and forty-six in-service teachers. Most primary school teachers were self-efficacious in teaching FMS (67.59 per cent); almost one-third (32.41 per cent) were not. Male teachers had higher perceived self-efficacy than female teachers, and a positive relationship was found between perceived self-efficacy to teach FMS and interest in, and participation in, physical activity (r = 0.52 and r = 0.31 respectively). Implications for practice include providing FMS teaching resources and professional training. Further research should explore the effect of perceived self-efficacy on teaching performance.
- Description: C1
An argument for new understandings and explanations of early school leaving that go beyond the conventional
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: London Review of Education Vol. 3, no. 2 (2005), p. 117-130
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- Description: This paper presents an argument around the need to rethink the issue of early school leaving from the vantage point of students and teachers, and the conditions and pathways that need to be constructed and brought into existence within schooling, if such conditions do not already exist. The attempt is to move discussions outside of the well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful literatures of 'at risk' categories that end up blaming students, their families or backgrounds. The claim being advanced is that the focus needs to be on relationships, school cultures, and pedagogical arrangements that make schools more attractive and educationally engaging places.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001466
Modernizing the Australian education workplace : A case of failure to deliver for teachers of young disadvantaged adolescents
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Review Vol. 57, no. 2 (2005), p. 221-233
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This article has at its centre the project, discourses and practices of modernization and what these mean practically and existentially for schools. The author argues that schools are, at their core, relational organizations, therefore they are primarily concerned with creating the set of relational resources and conditions that enable learning to take place, among students as well as teachers. When this does not happen, for whatever reasons, schools are very dysfunctional, deeply disturbed and unhappy places. An instance is described of an Australian government school that courageously, and in a politically prudent way, created the space within which to construct a viable relationally-affirming alternative. It is a story about how a school found ways of working against the damaging and prevailing managerialist ethos, and devised ways of uniquely re-inventing and reforming itself against/in spite of the external dominant official reform agenda.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001467
Categorising sports injuries in epidemiological studies : the subsequent injury categorisation (SIC) model to address multiple, recurrent and exacerbation of injuries
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Cook, Jill
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 48, no.17, p. 1-6
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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- Description: Objective: Sports injuries are often recurrent and there is wide recognition that a subsequent injury (of either the same or a different type) can be strongly influenced by a previous injury. Correctly categorising subsequent injuries (multiple, recurrent, exacerbation or new) requires substantial clinical expertise, but there is also considerable value in combining this expertise with more objective statistical criteria. This paper presents a new model, the subsequent injury categorisation (SIC) model, for categorising subsequent sports injuries that takes into account the need to include both acute and overuse injuries and ten different dependency structures between injury types. Methods: The suitability of the SIC model was demonstrated with date ordered sports injury data from a large injury database from community Australian football players over one playing season. A subsequent injury was defined to have occurred in the subset of players with two or more reported injuries. Results: 282 players sustained 469 subsequent injuries of which 15.6% were coded to categories representing injuries that were directly related to previous index injuries. This demonstrates that players can sustain a number of injuries over one playing season. Many of these will be unrelated to previous injuries but subsequent injuries that are related to previous injury occurrences are not uncommon. Conclusion: The handling of subsequent sports injuries is a substantial challenge for the sports medicine field—both in terms of injury treatment and in epidemiological research to quantify them. Application of the SIC model allows for multiple different injury types and relationships within players, as well as different index injuries.
Sport as a setting for promoting health
- Authors: Donaldson, Alex , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 1 (January 2012 2012), p. 4-5
- Full Text: false
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Setting our minds to implementation
- Authors: Verhagen, Evert , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Editorial , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 45, no. 13 (2011), p.1015-1016
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text: false
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- Description: It is now well accepted that to prevent sports injuries we need more intervention studies. Therefore, it is somewhat alarming that most sports injury studies still only focus on the fi rst two steps of the four-step prevention sequence of van Mechelen et al: only counting injuries and describing causal factors. This has clearly been shown by Klügl et al, who reviewed approximately 5274 original sports injury publications, of which only 492 studies intended to establish the preventive value of a measure or programme. This review showed that although the number of efficacy/effectiveness studies has slowly increased over the years, this is still lagging behind the approximately 4000 descriptive and aetiological studies.
Learning to be a teacher of the gifted: The importance of examining opinions and challenging misconceptions
- Authors: Plunkett, Margaret , Kronborg, Leonie
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gifted and Talented International Vol. 26, no. (1) (2011 2011), p. 31-46
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In Australia, most teachers enter the profession without having completed any dedicated studies pertaining to gifted education, yet many go on to teach gifted students. There is a substantive body of research supporting the value of professional learning in enhancing attitudes and practices that are conducive to appropriate provisioning for gifted students. In 2008, Monash University began offering a new elective in gifted education which by the end of 2010 had been completed by almost 500 pre-service teachers. This article reports on research conducted with 332 of those participants, using Gagne and Nadeau's (1985) Opinionnaire and a reflective journal. Findings illustrate a strong positive growth in opinions relating to gifted education, particularly in regard to social justice. Respondents' reflections suggest that access to research and literature on giftedness had been instrumental in assisting pre-service teachers to challenge their previous opinions, many of which they now regarded as uninformed misconceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme in community football
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Diamantopoulou, Kathy , Twomey, Dara , Doyle, Tim , Lloyd, David , Young, Warren , Elliot, Bruce
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine. Vol. 48(8), p.718-723.
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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- Description: Objective: To determine the reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme for lower limb injury prevention. Design: Secondary analysis of data from a group-clustered randomised controlled trial. Setting: A periodised exercise training warm-up programme was delivered to players during training sessions over an 8-week preseason (weeks 1–8) and 18-week playing season. Participants: 1564 community Australian football players. Main outcome measurements: Reach, measured weekly, was the number of players who attended training sessions. Adoption was the number of attending players who completed the programme in full, partially or not at all. Reasons for partial or non-participation were recorded. Results: In week 1, 599 players entered the programme; 55% attended 1 training session and 45% attended > 1 session. By week 12, 1540 players were recruited but training attendance (reach) decreased to <50%. When players attended training, the majority adopted the full programme—ranging from 96% (week 1) to above 80% until week 20. The most common reasons for low adoption were players being injured, too sore, being late for training or choosing their own warm-up. Conclusions: The training programme's reach was highest preseason and halved at the playing season's end. However, when players attended training sessions, their adoption was high and remained close to 70% by season end. For sports injury prevention programmes to be fully effective across a season, attention also needs to be given to (1) encouraging players to attend formal training sessions and (2) considering the possibility of some form of programme delivery outside of formal training.
Competing with injuries : Injuries prior to and during the 15th FINA World Championships 2013 (aquatics)
- Authors: Mountjoy, Margo , Junge, Astrid , Benjamen, Sarah , Boyd, Kevin , Diop, Mohamed , Gerrard, David , van den Hoogenband, Cees-Rein , Marks, Saul , Martinez-Ruiz, Enrique , Miller, Jim , Nanousis, Kyriakos , Shahpar, Farhad , Veloso, Jose , van Mechelen, Willem , Verhagen, Evert
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 49, no. 1 (2015), p. 37-43
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Background: Injury and illness surveillance is the foundation for the development of prevention strategies. Objective: To examine injuries among the aquatic disciplines in the 4 weeks prior to and during the 2013 FINA World Championships. Methods: The study was comprised of two components: (1) a retrospective athlete survey recording injuries in the 4 weeks prior to the Championships and (2) a prospective recording of injuries and illnesses by the medical teams of the participating countries and the local host medical team. Results: One-third of the 1116 responding athletes reported an injury/physical complaint in the 4 weeks prior to the Championships. Significantly more women (36.7%) than men (28.6%) reported injuries. Divers reported the highest rate of injury/physical complaints (55.7%). At the start of the Championships, 70% of injured respondents (n=258) were still symptomatic; however, full participation was expected by 76%. During the Championships, 186 new injuries were reported (8.3/100 registered athletes) with the highest injury incidence rate in water polo (15.3/100 registered athletes). The most common injured body part was the shoulder (21%). A total of 199 illnesses were reported during the Championships (9.0/100 registered athletes) with the most common diagnosis of illness being gastrointestinal infection. Environmental exposure (allergy, otitis and jellyfish stings) was responsible for 27% of all illnesses in open water swimming. Conclusions: Injuries pose a significant health risk for elite aquatic athletes. A prospective study would improve understanding of out-of-competition injuries. Future injury and illness surveillance at FINA World Championships is required to direct and measure the impact of prevention strategies.
Using an instructional design model to evaluate a blended learning subject in a pre-service teacher education degree
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of Learning Vol. 17, no. 2 (2010 2010), p. 65-80
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- Description: Over 2007-2008, a pedagogy subject in a pre-service teacher education degree was (re)designed to help students develop their understandings and skills and a wider, more critical appreciation of the work of teachers and approaches to curriculum. The rationale for designing and including the online modules in the subject was to develop information and communication technology (ICT) skills, and to deliver a blended learning approach, argued by some to be more effective, that is, have more advantages than traditional approaches. In this paper, the face-to-face teaching alongside the eLearning that occurred in the blended learning approach is analysed using Tom Reeves and John Hedberg's model (2003) for evaluating interactive learning systems. Arguably, this evaluation model can be usefully applied to higher education teaching that is not fully online, and can help to comprise an integral part of an action research approach. This paper is a 'proof of concept' piece, demonstrating the applicability of the model to a blended learning course. Demonstrating the application of Reeves and Hedberg's model fills a knowledge void on the literature surrounding blended learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Using ethical mapping for exploring two professional dilemmas in initial teacher education
- Authors: McDonough, Sharon
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Reflective Practice Vol. 16, no. 1 (2015), p. 142-153
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- Description: Professional experience placements are recognised as a critical element in initial teacher education programs, however, supervising and mentoring pre-service teachers is challenging work as those involved in the process face professional dilemmas as they attempt to address the needs of various stakeholders. In this paper I draw from data collected in a self-study of mentoring and explore how critical reflection may provide a deeper understanding of these dilemmas. Through adapting and applying an ethical mapping framework as a cue for reflection, I examine the possibilities this approach offers in coming to an understanding of effective and ethical practice during professional experience placements. This paper focuses on two professional dilemmas to explore the way the cue can be used to critically reflect on mentoring and outlines the process I took in engaging in this reflection. I argue that ethical mapping offers university mentors and those working in initial teacher education with a structured approach for critical reflection to understand practice, and to articulate their pedagogy.
Mild traumatic brain injury among a cohort of rugby union players: predictors of time to injury
- Authors: Hollis, Stephanie , Stevenson, Mark , McIntosh, Andrew , Li, Ling , Heritier, Stephane , Shores, E Arthur , Collins, Michael , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 45, no. 12 (2011), p. 997-999
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- Description: This study reports the time to sustain a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) among a cohort of community rugby union players. Demographic and player characteristics were collected and players followed up for between one and three playing seasons. 7% of the cohort sustained an mTBI within 10 h of game time, increasing twofold to 14% within 20 h. The mean time to first mTBI was 8 h with an SD of 6.2 (median 6.8 h; IQR: 2.9–11.7 h). Players reporting a recent history of concussion were 20% more likely to sustain an mTBI after 20 h of game time compared with those with no recent history of concussion. Players were likely to sustain an mTBI in shorter time if they trained for <3 h/week (HR=1.48, p=0.03) or had a body mass index <27 (HR=1.77, p=0.007). The findings highlight modifiable characteristics to reduce the likelihood of shortened time to mTBI.
Family support and ease of access link socio-economic status and sports club membership in adolescent girls : A mediation study
- Authors: Eime, Rochelle , Harvey, Jack , Craike, Melinda , Symons, Caroline , Payne, Warren
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Vol. 10, no. (2013), p. 1-12
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- Description: Background: Much research has been conducted into the determinants of physical activity (PA) participation among adolescent girls. However, the more specific question of what are the determinants of particular forms of PA participation, such as the link between participation through a sports club, has not been investigated. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between participation in a sports club and socio-economic status (SES), access to facilities, and family and peer support, for female adolescents.Methods: A survey of 732 female adolescent school students (521 metropolitan, 211 non-metropolitan; 489 Year 7, 243 Year 11) was conducted. The survey included demographic information (living arrangements, ethnicity indicators, and indicators of SES such as parental education and employment status and locality); access to facilities; and family and peer support (travel, encouragement, watching, praise, joint participation). For each characteristic, sports club participants and non-participants were compared using chi-square tests. Multiple mediation analyses were used to investigate the role of access, family and peer support in the link between SES and sport participation.Results: There were significant associations (p<0.05) between sports club participation and: all demographic characteristics; all measures of family and peer support; and access to sport-related facilities. Highest levels of participation were associated with monolingual Australian-born families, with two parents, at least one of whom was well-educated, with both parents employed, and high levels of parental assistance, engagement and support. Participation in club sport among both younger and older adolescent girls was significantly positively associated with the SES of both their neighbourhoods and their households, particularly in metropolitan areas. These associations were most strongly mediated by family support and by access to facilities.Conclusions: To facilitate and promote greater participation in club sport among adolescent girls from low SES neighbourhoods and households, strategies should target modifiable determinants such as facility access and parental support. This will involve improving access to sports facilities and promoting, encouraging and assisting parents to provide support for their daughters' participation in sport clubs. © 2013 Eime et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
- Description: 2003011031