Building social skills and character in young children of all ages, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds through junior golf programs. Underserved youth have a difficult time finding themselves, discovering what they want to do in life. They may come from a bad neighborhood, live in a problematic household, and often endure large amount of stress on a daily basis. Some can handle it just fine, while others cannot. One thing that is noted at least in America, is the growing obesity epidemic hitting impoverished areas.

Children and teens are growing up not going outside, not participating in any kind of physical activity, and developing health problems, mental problems frequently related to low self-esteem and lack of socialization skills. It is difficult at times for any youth to engage in something meaningful. This is especially true for children coming from a low socioeconomic status household. They may not find they can go outside and play because of the condition of their neighborhoods. If they socialize with people around them, they may get into bigger trouble than keeping to themselves.

That is why sports can be a way for underserved youth to have a chance to get regular physical activity and social interaction. Sports serve several purposes. By being physically active, youth in sports can stay in shape, stay healthy, and stay motivated. The team and communication aspects of sports teaches children to learn to work with others and understand the importance of the collective. Society works towards a unified goal. Sports teams work towards a unified goal. By children learning how to play a sport like junior golf, they learn so many skills that they can take off the field and hopefully into a future, promising career.

In the end, that is the most important aspect of sports and why this topic is so important. Sports provide a potentially even playing field for anyone wishing to participate. Especially in a sport like junior golf, someone can come in without a rich family, without experience and come out a champion. That in of itself is a great thing.

Purpose and Goal of my paper?

The purpose and goal of this paper to have a comprehensive understanding of why junior golf and sports in general have such a positive and longstanding effect on youth, especially underserved youth. Identification of certain knowledge gaps as well as confirmation of assumptions or rejections of assumptions will be made. One of the aims is also understand why youth do not participate in sports or outdoor activities as often as they did in the past, especially in impoverished communities. If certain perceived differences play a role, the paper will also aim to see how gender and sexuality may change perceptions of youth when it comes to sports and their willingness to participate in sports or physical activities in general.

Youth sports like junior golf have led to improvement for those who participate in several areas. These areas are physical as in improved physical and mental health, academic as in improved grades and better understanding of potential career goals, personal as in increased confidence, and finally social as in improved communication and better able to work with groups/teams. Although not everyone who participates in sports experiences the myriad of potential benefits, sports for the most part enable youth to grow into strong, confident individuals with some pursuing a lucrative career as athletes.

The paper wishes to see what causes these positive changes as well as why some youth may not see positive changes while participating in sports. There are many factors at play in relation to the child/teen's experience playing sports. If a child/teen has a good coach who instills strong values the youth will most likely have a positive experience from sports participation. If a coach who is lazy teaches nothing to the child/teen, then that youth may have a negative overall experience from sports participation. All these are important to get a full picture of youth sports participation. Ultimately, youth have to endure a whole host of obstacles, perceived or real in order to develop into mature and successful adults. Sports can have a positive influence to make that transition easier. It is important to understand fully why.

Hypothesis/Research Questions: How can Social Cognitive Theory be applied to sports like junior golf and what significance do sports have on the development of youth in regards to gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity? Can the Health Belief Model help understand the positive effects interventions like junior golf have on youth? What information can the Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory provide in understanding how and why youth learn and grow while playing sports? What information can these two theories provide in understanding why youth are not physically active or refrain from participating in sports in the first place?

Theory: Social Cognitive Theory and Health Belief Model

Research Method:

My data collection...

The Piedmont Junior Golf Association director, Tommy Pendley, will ask 12 questions related to the core values taught during the PJGA weekly junior clinics. Their answers will be recorded out of a group of 10 junior golfers in age group 8-10, five junior golfers in age group 11-14, and five junior golfers in age group 15-17 participating in the weekly clinics. Percentages will be documented from the questions.
The interviews will be done face-to-face for several reasons. They will provide accurate screening. Participants will be acknowledged and answers will come directly from participants instead of through the potential anonymity of online surveys. This removes the potential inaccuracy of the responses as the interviewer can identify if the participants fit into the required age groups. Face-to-face interviews also allow the capture of non-verbal and verbal facial ques that include body language.

The disadvantage with this kind of qualitative data collection is the limit of sample size. There is only so many participants that can be interviewed for the study. The other disadvantage is time. It takes longer to interview participants one on one and face-to-face versus handing out questionnaires. Participation for the study may also be reduced as potential participants may not want to go through an interview and provide answers to questions with their identity known.

These questions are qualitative in nature and seek to collect information that will be analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The participants will have their answers compared with a literature review where Social Cognitive Theory and the Health Belief Model will be examined so the answers provided by the participants will have some context from which they can be further analyzed. The research articles will also contain information that will provide supplementary context on gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status as these may add to perceived barriers in youth.

Statistical Method:

Interviews provide qualitative data and allow for theory testing. In order to analyze qualitative data, data must first be collected and managed, then organized and prepared. The next steps are to code and describe the data via conceptualization, categorization, classification and identification of themes. Then data must be connected and interrelated followed by interpreted, generating explanatory accounts. Interpretation of data will be compared to information provided from research and other case studies.

Some software packages make the analysis of text easier like NVIVO, MAXQDA, and atlas.ti. However, some of the information can also be coded into numbers and quantitative analysis may be an option for further analysis. It is easier to analyze numbers versus text and the option for a mixed study has been seen in numerous studies involving theoretical frameworks.

Qualitative analysis can also be performed thanks to a combination of Microsoft Access, Excel, and Word, especially if the sample size is small. In this case, it is only ten participants with 12 questions asked for a total of 120 answers. The focus of the analysis is to help better understand theoretical concepts, relate that information into thematic coding and category development. From there, conclusions will be drawn.