Larissa E. Davies

Background : Investment in recreational physical activity and sports participation (PAS) needs to be justified. The Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a framework that aims to quantify social value, but there is no standard on how to apply it to the PAS sector. This study uses the Delphi method to reach international consensus on (1) the definition of social value of PAS, (2) the social outcomes that should be measured, and (3) the tools to measure and value them. Methods : The preparing phase included a systematic review, initial interviews, and 2 creative workshops. During the conducting phase, a pilot was followed by 3 iterative rounds of communication with experts. Participants indicated their level of agreement with different statements. Consensus was reached if ≥70% of the panel agreed or disagreed. Small expert meetings were used as an additional step. Results : Fifty-nine experts completed the first round and consensus was reached in all statements. There was 100% of agreement that Health, Education, Subjective Well-being, and Social Capital should be outcomes of a Social Return on Investment model of PAS and 85.7% for Crime. However, the results from the small expert meetings led to the removal of Social Capital and Crime from the final model. Stability of consensus (≤10% variability) was reached. Conclusions : This study provides the initial phase for a standardized international PAS Social Return on Investment model to guide policymakers, industry, and any stakeholder interested in the evaluation of the social value generated by their activity.

Background: The Social Return on Investment (SROI) model has been applied to physical activity and sports (PAS) inconsistently in the past. In order to demonstrate that PAS creates social value for society, consistent, scientific-based tools must be developed. Methods: In 2022, a group of interdisciplinary researchers started a project to standardize the application of SROI to global PAS activities. A Delphi study, informed by a systematic review on this topic, was used and the present commentary exposes the main conclusions. Results: Six main lessons can be drawn from the process of building a global SROI applied to PAS: the methodology to measure the impact of PAS at the population level is different from the methodology applied to specific interventions; there is consensus on the impact in health; there is knowledge, but also unanswered questions on the impact of PAS in education; the impact of PAS in population well-being as a promising area; the of impact on crime and social capital requires more research; and there is controversy in the relationship between PAS, and environment, and climate change. Conclusions: A global SROI applied to PAS is a powerful tool to demonstrate how an active population can bring value to society. For this purpose, researchers and policymakers are called to action to fill in the gaps that remain open in order to build a robust model.

Few studies have applied sport development models depicting Para athlete career development. This study utilizes the Athletic Career Pathways in Paralympic Sports framework, developed to respond to the limitations of established sport development models when applied to Para sport. Employing a mixed-methods design informed by critical realism, this study explores the career trajectories of Para track-and-field athletes while assessing the framework’s broader applicability. The findings challenge the linear pathway of traditional models, and a revised framework is presented offering flexibility to respond to the Para sport-specific and cultural context. The importance of schooling type, accessibility to nondisabled sports, and the need for specialist equipment in Para track and field offer further original insights into a Para athlete’s trajectory and validates the need for a Para sport-specific athlete career development model. These findings can be used to develop bespoke systems to support Para track-and-field athletes throughout their career trajectory.

There is growing demand from policy makers and practitioners to understand and measure the social impact of physical activity and sport (PAS) driven by the needs to justify investments from funders, improve decision-making of PAS managers, and produce robust and defensible evidence to underpin international and national PAS policy. Social return on investment (SROI) has emerged as a credible framework for measuring the non-financial impact of PAS; however, there is a lack of agreement about what and how social outcomes should be measured and valued. This article presents a research project that aims to address this gap through a systematic review and three-round Delphi study. The review identified five domains of social impact, and the Delphi study achieved consensus across 29 statements relating to health, education, crime, social capital, and well-being. The next stage of the project is to establish the most appropriate valuation techniques for capturing the monetary value of social outcomes from PAS across the domains. When complete, this research should encourage a more standardized approach to social impact measurement, which will help PAS stakeholders to articulate the social value of the sector more consistently.

Volunteering might be a leisure activity that supports the development of social capital of individuals with disabilities in organized sports. This study investigates the link between having a disability (i.e., physical, mental, or both), the likelihood and extent of volunteering, and the level of social capital in grassroots football clubs. We further examine a moderating effect of volunteering hours on the relationship between having a disability and social capital. Drawing on leisure constraints theory, individuals with disabilities are assumed to have a lower probability to volunteer than able-bodied individuals. Also, we hypothesize that individuals with disabilities perceive their social capital as lower than able-bodied individuals. Based on the motivational model, we assume that sport volunteers with disabilities perceive a higher social capital if they volunteer more hours. Data were collected via an online survey in seven European countries and targeted at adult volunteers and members in football clubs (n = 16,989 volunteers). Results of regressions show that having a physical disability is significantly negatively associated with the probability to volunteer in a football club. Further, having either a physical or mental disability is significantly negatively related to an individuals’ social capital level. The moderation analyses indicate that volunteers having both types of disabilities perceive a higher social capital if they volunteer more hours per month.

Background: Physical activity and sport (PAS) have been related to health and social benefits, but their monetary value remains unclear. This systematic review on the social return on investment of PAS aimed to find what are the social outcomes measured in previous PAS literature and how are these measured and valued. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on WoS, PubMed, and EconLit. Articles in English, measuring the social value of any type of PAS in monetary terms and utilizing a social return on investment framework, were included. Risk of bias was evaluated using the Drummond checklist. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed. Results: Fifty-five documents (2010–2022), from all continents except America, were included; only 8 were published in peer-reviewed journals, whereas 47 were reports. Most studies evaluated the benefits of specific programs, and 6 measured the engagement in PAS at the population level based on national or community surveys. The social outcomes identified were health (94.5%), crime (50.9%), education (83.6%), subjective well-being (89.1%), social capital (60%), and other (3.6%–23.6%). The valuation methods included willingness to pay, well-being valuation, the cost of an activity that could result in the same outcome, and cost databases associating outcomes with a monetary value. Conclusions: This study updates a previous review and widens the scope by answering the question of how social outcomes are measured and valued in previous PAS literature. Given the heterogeneity found in the application of the method, this review will inform a Delphi study to reach a Global Consensus Statement on the measurement of social value and PAS.

Drawing on different theoretical views of subjective well-being (SWB), this study examines the associations between football volunteering in general, volunteering in specific roles, and different S...

Internationally, there is rising interest in measuring the value of sport and physical activity to society. A critical step in valuing the sector is first establishing the relationship between engagement in sport and physical activity and the societal outcomes that ensue. This paper summarises the findings of a literature review carried out as part of a larger study on the Social Return on Investment (SROI) of recreational physical activity in Aotearoa New Zealand. The review aimed to synthesise existing evidence on the relationship between recreational physical activity and wellbeing outcomes for all New Zealanders, including tangata whenua (Māori, who are Aotearoa New Zealand’s Indigenous population). The methodology took the format of a scoping review and included a series of searches for academic and grey literature, including literature concerning Māori that might have been overlooked in a traditional academic search. The findings are grouped into five outcome areas: physical health; subjective wellbeing; individual development; personal behaviour; and social and community development. The review found some compelling evidence which shows examples of the links between sport and physical activity and outcomes in each of these areas for specific population sub-groups. In particular, for Māori, the findings demonstrate a strong impact on social and community development through building social capital and enhancing cultural identity. However, in all outcome areas, there is mixed quality evidence, a small amount of evidence on which to base definitive conclusions, and limited evidence relating to the monetary value of outcomes. The review concludes that there is a need for further research to strengthen the evidence base for social impact measurement, particularly around the impact of sport and physical activity for indigenous populations.