Field research is designed for the purpose of acquiring data in the field in direct contact with
the target groups for:
- detailed definition of the subject of measurement;
- determining data collection methodology;
- prior research implementation;
- contributing previous research gap analysis;
- considering ethics notes.
The main aims of field research are:
• to determine the frequency of aggressive behaviour and social exclusion through questionnaires and observations in the youth environment;
• to determine the frequency of prosocial behaviour and cohesion through questionnaires in the youth environment;
• to measure certain personal characteristics (motivation for sport/PE classes; self-esteem, optimism and hope) of the subject, which may be important for the project aims and activities;
• to determine the frequency of personal experience of peer violence (either verbally or physically) or social exclusion of the subjects, as well as how much it 'hurt' their feelings;
• to identify possibilities of observing the perception of aggressive and prosocial behaviour by coaches in clubs;
• to determine correlations between measures of aggressive behaviour and social exclusion and measures of potential moderators;
• to check the effectiveness of applied methodologies of measurement.
Conclusions
1. Aggressive and social exclusion behaviours have rare or very rare occurrence, predominantly in the form of the verbal aggression. The lowest occurrence is determined for indirect aggressive behaviours.
2. Among sport club athlete’s samples across the European countries prosocial and cohesion behaviours have quite often to often occurrence.
3. Athlete’s intrinsic motivation for sport vary from very high up to extremely high and their extrinsic motivation for sport vary between from high up to very high. Athletes self-esteem vary from very high up to extremely high, their optimism vary from high up to very high, and their hope vary between from high up to extremely high.
4. Percentage of personal experience of violence or of social exclusion assessed by the athletes vary between 7.90 in Bosnia and Herzegovina sample, up to 27.30 in Croatia sample. Percentage of athletes who have had a personal experience of violence or of social exclusion in last two years and who assessed the hurting of their feelings by that personal experience by the a lot (4) or fully (5) measure, is approximately at 25%. Due to the rated personal experience of violence or of social exclusion, in European sport clubs are found (or could be expected) approximately from 2% up to 7% children and adolescents of their total number, that have ‘severe’ personal experience of violence or of social exclusion.
5. Possibilities of observing aggressive behaviours by coaches are relatively low due to the few reasons: predominant form of aggressive behaviours is verbal aggression; occurrence of these aggressive behaviours is very rare or rare; and, aggressive behaviours could be covert or hidden for coaches observations by ‘occurring’ in locker rooms or outside the training facility (before or after the training session is finished). Possibilities of observing prosocial and cohesion behaviours by coaches are somewhat higher then possibilities of observing aggressive behaviours, due to the few possible reasons: coach can elicit some of these behaviours in the athletes by using particular sport exercises in which these behaviours are expected to be shown and to be reinforced (‘awarded’ by positive or by negative reinforcement); in mutual communication with athletes, coach and his/her team could set up team goals by using goal-setting technique; occurrence of these behaviour is not hidden or covert, and coach can discuss with his/her athletes about them; and, by using some method of social support coach can teach athletes how to treat and behave with their teammates providing them a ‘field’ for showing some behaviours.
6. Correlations between measured ‘personal characteristics’ (sport motivation, self-esteem, optimism and hope) as potential moderators, with basic project measures (measures of aggressiveness, prosocial behaviour and cohesion, and satisfaction with team) are relatively inconsistent among different sport club samples, and they should be considered separately for every country regarding specific country sample characteristics (sample structure: by age, by gender, number of subjects, and, by particular sport engagement) and regarding country specific sociocultural characteristics.
7. Questionnaires are proven as a good applied methodology of measurement the specific measures of aggressive and prosocial/cohesion behaviours because they could provide a lot of the data from many of the subjects (either athletes or school students) for researchers, considering the limitations and shortcomings presented at the end of the discussion section. Observation contributed researchers to determine occurrence of aggressive and prosocial/cohesion behaviours, but as a methodology of measurement are not proven itself as a useful due to the several different reasons listed previously into the discussion section.
