Researching Rural Sports and Recreation
While almost every Canadian community has some form of organized sport or other structured recreation available for children, nationwide participation has been declining.
College of Nursing’s Dr. Hope Bilinski and her team of co-investigators Dr. Tara-Leigh McHugh (University of Alberta), Dr. Ulrich Teucher (University of Saskatchewan) and Ms. Amy Shipley and Ms. Cheryl McCallum (Sask Sport Inc.) are hoping to use a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Sports Participation Initiative Grant to get to the bottom of this.
The Rural Children and Their Communities Leading the Way Toward the Enhancement of Sports and Recreation study will give Dr. Bilinski and her team an opportunity to work with young children in rural communities to develop research questions exploring the children’s participation and commitment to sport and other recreational activities. “By doing this research, we hope to better understand the children’s experience and engagement in the participation of sport and recreational activities, discover from the children’s perspective, the factors that should be incorporated into future research aimed at exploring sport in children and determine the most appropriate methods for engaging children in research processes,” said Bilinski.
“Working with Sask Sport Inc. on this project has really helped bring this research to life. Two rural areas within their Sport, Culture and Recreation Districts will serve as our geographical setting. The manager and recreational directors for the sites will act as experts in the area of sport delivery for rural communities and provide a link to those children living in the rural district communities.”