Female Volunteer Coaches in Community Sport: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Over the past two decades there has been an increase in female sport participation in countries around the world, however, this has not been matched with an increase in the number of females volunteering to coach at the community level of sport. This paper uses a scoping review methodology to synthesize and analyze the extant research published on female volunteer community sport coaches, to identify gaps in the existing literature, and to provide directions for future research. It identifies a general lack of reported research on female volunteer coaches within community levels of sport and reports that existing research has focused on five themes: female volunteer coach motives, barriers, values, supports, and retention. The paper proposes a research agenda focused on seven key themes: policy and governance, coaching pathways, recruitment, retention, performance, stress and wellbeing, and support, as well as suggestions for research methods to explore these themes.