An investigation of Swedish children and adolescents’ fun priorities in youth ice hockey

The fun integration theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding the totality of determinants that make sport fun. Understanding the relative prioritisation of those determinants for youth sport participants is one way of creating environments that encourage continued participation and mitigate dropout. Like many sports around the world, in Sweden, dropout in youth ice hockey typically occurs during early to mid-adolescence. This study is part of ongoing efforts to explore determinants of fun, and players’ prioritisation of those determinants, in Swedish ice hockey. Junior ice hockey players (n = 343) aged 10–19 years were asked to rate the importance of 83 fun determinants previously identified among Swedish youth athletes; these determinants were organized into 11 fun factors in parallel with previous research, and importance of the fun factors and determinants explored by subgroup comparisons. Results indicated few differences, and overwhelming similarity of players’ fun priorities when compared by sex, age, and perceived competence, with the fun factors Trying Hard , Positive Team Dynamics , and Positive Coaching of highest priority across all subgroups, and the fun determinant ‘trying your best’ rated highest. These findings support the fun integration theory's previous findings of a fun ethos, that is, a distinct and similar prioritisation of the fun factors and determinants regardless of player characteristics. Overall, results demonstrate generalisability of the fun integration theory and further contributing to this important and growing body of knowledge.