Toward a critical socioecological understanding of urban Black girls’ sport participation

Abstract

Young girls who participate in sport may receive holistic health benefits from participation. Yet, socioecological factors limit their participation on structural, cultural and individual levels. Moreover, scholars are focusing more on theories that explore how race and gender work simultaneously to permeate the meanings and motivations influencing Black girls’ sport participation. Given the multilevel effects of race and gender, the voices of Black girls are vital to creating more authentic and robust theories about the socioecological factors shaping their sport participation. The purpose of this study was to provide a critical socioecological understanding of Black girls’ sport participation. To this end, Black girls’ voices were employed to understand sport as an institutional space through the lens of three dimensions of Black Feminist Thought: ethics of caring, a situation of struggle and internal empowerment. In this study, 27 middle school girls were interviewed using a semi-structured interview method. Questions asked were open-ended and based on literature from youth development, sport-for-development and Black studies. Probing questions were also asked to allow girls to speak to themes that may not be prominent in the literature. Interviews were conducted over three days; feedback from teachers and administrators was also collected to triangulate the data. Results of the study suggest four salient aspects of Black girls’ sport participation: family social support, gender dynamics, structural support and internal motivation. Informants discussed positive experiences from playing sport with adult family members having the largest influence on their sport participation. Moreover, Black girls desire to participate in sport yet are hindered by the intersection of racial, gendered and class-based socioecological barriers. Study implications include providing social support from adult relatives, a dedicated and equipped physical activity space and competent physical educators with support from school administrators for Black girls to engage in sport and receive benefits from doing so.

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