Alastair Anderson

Psychosocial influences on children’s identification with sports teams: A case study of Australian Rules football supporters

The article examines the socialization of children into identification with a sports team. It presents a sociological approach which extends the insights obtained from research into psychological aspects of sports team identification. A conceptual model is presented which proffers an explanation of how and why children become supporters of a particular team. The model depicts the relationship between socializing agents, broader social influences and embodied dispositions. It is argued that these factors coalesce to influence children’s identification with a sports team. The article presents results of a qualitative study of young Australian Rules football supporters which show that their embryonic identification with a sports team is strongly influenced by parental and near family influences, particularly fathers and other male role models.

Soccer Fan Violence: A Holistic Approach A Reply to Braun and Vliegenthart

Building on Braun and Vliegenthart’s recent study of soccer hooliganism, this article develops an explanatory model of soccer fan violence and collective violence more generally. The fabric of soccer fan violence becomes a richer tapestry if the diversity of the phenomenon is recognized and the focus is moved towards a more holistic approach to explaining crowd behaviour and collective conflict. The proposed approach incorporates macro-level influences and mediating and moderating influences as they affect fan violence. The model recognizes the critical importance of the collective mind and dispositions which can be investigated and understood through the lens of social identification and habitus. The model proposed in the article provides a solid foundation for testing its merits.

Parents or peers: Which is it? Sport socialization and team identification in Australia: A rejoinder to Melnick and Wann

There exists a rich sociohistorical scholarship on sport in Australian society, and particularly on the sociogenesis, development and differential popularity of sports such as Australian Rules football, cricket and soccer. However, the processes through which young Australians are socialized into sport and become fans of a particular sport team remain a relatively unexamined phenomenon. In their article on sport fandom in Australia, Merrill Melnick and Daniel Wann (2011) make a significant contribution to knowledge about sport socialization and the team identification of Australian fans. Using a convenience sample of 163, Melnick and Wann surveyed students from a Melbourne-based university. The questionnaire used comprised 25 items which included two reliable and valid uni-dimensional instruments, the Sport Fandom Questionnaire and the Sport Spectator Identification Scale. Melnick and Wann reported that for the respondents friends (peers) were most influential in their becoming a sport fan, followed in order by parents, school and ‘community’. Their findings further evidence the role that peers play in the sport socialization and team identification of young people. However, the respondents overwhelmingly identified males, and particularly fathers, as the most influential person responsible for their ‘decision’ to become a sport fan. In general, ‘family members had the greatest impact as sport fandom socialization agents. They accounted for 65 percent of the responses’ (Melnick and Wann, 2011: 7). We argue that in the study by Melnick and Wann there is a disconnect between the forced choice responses given by respondents in terms of rating the importance of socialization agents, and those agents that were freely nominated by them as the most influential person in their ‘decision’ to become a sport fan. This disconnect affects the