Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Purpose – Alcohol stands in an ambiguous relationship to sports, and there is a common belief that participation in sports prevents alcohol consumption. Although this is not always the case, sports clubs can be important settings for health promoting alcohol policy interventions .The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of implementing alcohol policies in eight football clubs in Sweden and, in particular, how the implementation process is conveyed in the clubs’ alcohol policy projects, the similarities and differences between this case study and Durlak and DuPre's implementation model and the recommendations for successful alcohol policy implementation in relation to the result.

Design/methodology/approach – In total, 15 semi-structured interviews on the subject of sports’ club alcohol policies were conducted with project leaders and board members from eight sports clubs. The interviews were analysed using Durlak and DuPre's model of factors affecting implementation processes.

Findings – The results show that almost all the factors in Durlak and DuPre's model were comprehensively manifested in the football clubs’ alcohol policy projects, although with slightly different significance and emphases.

Practical implications – The results are discussed in relation to recommendations for successful alcohol policy implementation in sports clubs. Recommendations are presented in six areas: an explicit message; fit; internal policy dissemination; alcohol policy as a part of overall policy; support; and actors.

Originality/value – Many sports clubs do an excellent job of implementing alcohol policies successfully and it is imperative to incorporate their “good” practices into research and provide assistance to those whose policies and practice are less developed.

Aims: The aims of this review is to compile and identify key issues in international research about youth sports clubs as health-promoting settings, and then discuss the results of the review in terms of a framework for the youth sports club as a health-promoting setting.

Methods: The framework guiding this review of research is the health-promoting settings approach introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO). The method used is the integrated review. Inclusion criteria were, first, that the studies concerned sports clubs for     young people, not professional clubs; second, that it be a question of voluntary participation in some sort of ongoing organized athletics outside of the regular school curricula; third, that the studies consider issues about youth sports clubs in terms of health-promoting settings as described by WHO. The final sample for the review consists of 44 publications.

Results: The review shows that youth sports clubs have plentiful opportunities to be or become health-promoting settings; however this is not something that happens automatically. To do so, the club needs to include an emphasis on certain important elements in its strategies and daily practices. The youth sports club needs to be a supportive and healthy environment with activities designed for and adapted to the specific age-group or stage of development of the youth.

Conclusions: To become a health-promoting setting, a youth sports club needs to take a comprehensive approach to its activities, aims,  and purposes.

A national evaluation of Swedish compulsory schools was undertaken in 2003. This evaluation covers 16 compulsory school subjects in Year 9, including physical education (PE). The PE study includes a sample of 6,788 pupils and 1,688 teachers in Year 9 for background data and school subject comparisons. A questionnaire was also sent to the parents of the 6,788 pupils, and register data was collected on pupils’ final grades and parents’ educational levels. A smaller sample of 2,407 pupils and 82 PE teachers has been used in order to analyse pupils’ and teachers’ attitudes towards PE. The main focus of this article is the subject content in PE, with a particular focus on the teaching, the learning, and the teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes towards the subject. The results of the study show that PE is valued highly by both pupils and parents. Pupils active in sports enjoy PE the most, and the subject content is characterised by enjoyment in movement. The majority of the pupils are physically active during the lessons (85.2 percent), although at the same time a significant minority of the girls are present but inactive during PE. Of all the school subjects in Sweden, PE is the only ‘boyish’ subject and boys attain higher grades, enjoy it more and are more involved in and able to influence the content. The most important determining factors affecting grades in PE are leisure sport activity, parents’ educational levels, gender and cultural capital.