Speakers
Description
In European sport systems, volunteers are critical for the survival of community sport club, including grassroots football clubs. However, volunteer numbers are declining and their recruitment and retention are identified as main challenges across countries.
Few studies have examined outcomes of volunteering, focusing on positive outcomes. Negative outcomes are under-researched and employed volunteering measures neglected the different roles.
The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) developing quantitative measures for task and social frustration of sport volunteers, extending the qualitative study of Sheptak and Menaker (2016) and (2) identifying which voluntary roles yield higher frustration levels of sport volunteers in grassroots football.
Data were collected using an online survey (from November 2020 until June 2021) that targeted adult volunteers and club members in football in seven European countries (n=17,729). The empirical analysis contains a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine reliability and validity of the two frustration scales. Further, linear regressions were conducted to analyze the determinants of social and task frustration.
The results of the CFA reveal that the two scales for task and social frustration assessed reliability and validity. The regression results reveal that administrative and operational roles yield task frustration, while sport roles score low on task frustration. Only operational roles significantly increase social frustration. The results show the necessity for detailed analysis as volunteer outcomes seem to vary by volunteering role, including negative outcomes such as task and social frustration.
Community sport clubs can use these findings for the recruitment and retention of volunteers in sports.
