Role models
Role models and programs encourage preferred behaviours, participation, leadership, and inclusion among diverse groups.
A role model is a person whose behaviour, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people. [Dictionary.com, opens in a new tab].
A common phrase is 'you can't be what you can't see'. Role models and role model programs are often valued for their ability to encourage preferred behaviours (e.g. physical activity) as well as participation, leadership, and inclusion of people from diverse groups and populations.
Role model programs in sport re often targeted towards children and groups with lower engagement, such as females, culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD), First Nations communities, or persons with disability. Programs aim to increase physical activity participation and address other, broader community objectives (such as health, community development, reducing crime or domestic violence).
Elite and high-profile athletes are often identified as role models, with their positive and negative behaviours highlighted and examined. However, despite this common focus on elite athletes as role models, research suggests that people in our direct circle of family and relationships—including friends, teachers, and coaches—can have more positive and long-term impacts.
Parents in particular are generally the strongest role models for their children’s participation in organised sport. When parents are active, their children are much more likely to be active.
More information can also be found in the Engaging Parents in Sport and Role Models and Sport topics.
Resources and reading
- Australian kids need active, sporty parents - 2017, AusPlay Factsheet, Australian Sports Commission, (2017).
- Paralympian role models: media hype, political rhetoric or the real deal?, opens in a new tab Louise McCuaig, Senior Lecturer Health and Physical Education in Schools, The University of Queensland, The Conversation, (September 2016). Provides an overview of how the success of role models is often dependent on how 'relevant' they are to those observing them and how 'attainable' their achievements appear and provides anecdote to demonstrate how a Paralympic athlete has been so to a young boy.
- Rio Paralympics 2016: Athletes find role-model status a tricky balance, opens in a new tab, Marc Lancaster, Sporting News, (September 2016). Short article which includes several Rio Paralympic athletes discussing the balance between being a role model and just themselves.
- Why do girls need athletic role models?, opens in a new tab SIRC Blog, (10 June 2015). When role models are mentioned in sport, the first thing that comes to mind are high profile celebrities. While positive role models can be found in amateur and professional sports, it's the people they see every day that make the biggest difference.
- The Australian Sports Commission AusPlay Survey (AusPlay) is a large scale, rolling national population tracking survey that tracks Australian sport and physical activity participation behaviours to help inform investment, policy and sport delivery. Results are updated every six months.
- Case Study: Measuring the impact of the FA player appearances programme 2015-2016, opens in a new tab, Women in Sport, (2017). This report looks at the impact of elite sport stars on girls. The Football Association (FA) runs an established ambassador programme, enabling female football players to share their stories and inspire at a local level, with female players visiting schools and community groups for a number of years. Key findings reported are that player appearances provide a really positive experience for girls in school and community settings. Additionally, the four key impacts reported were: Re-enthusing and validating girls’ participation in football; Actively and meaningfully getting across positive life lessons; Inspiring girls to believe they can achieve in football; Driving interest in the women’s elite game.
- The impact of coaching on participants, opens in a new tab, Hopkinson M, Sports Coach UK, (2014). This report presents the findings from the first year of a four-year study of the impact of coaching (and coaches) upon sports participation. The current results provide evidence to support the belief that quality coaching can help bring people into sport, enhance their enjoyment, and increase how often they play and the likelihood of them staying involved. Key results from the survey identify how important quality coaching is. The report suggests that both adults and young people will have more positive playing experiences the higher the quality of their coach. The survey aimed to gather views from both people who are coached in their chosen sport, and those who play but do not receive coaching.
- She Needs to See it to be it: The Importance of Same-Gender Athletic Role Models, opens in a new tab, Midgley C, DeBues-Stafford G, Lockwood P, et al., Sex Roles. Volume 85, pp.142-160, (January 2021). The importance of gender-matched athletic role models for women was examined in four studies. Although both women and men may benefit most from exposure to high profile athletes in their own sport, women may have fewer motivating role models available to them. When asked to nominate examples of athletes, women were less likely than men to list same-gender examples and athletes from their own sport; even high-performing female athletes were less likely to nominate a same-gender role model than their male peers.
- Ambassadors of the game: do famous athletes have special obligations to act virtuously?, opens in a new tab Yorke, Christopher C., Archer, Alfred. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport; Volume 47(2), pp.301-317, (July 2020). Do famous athletes have special obligations to act virtuously? A number of philosophers have investigated this question by examining whether famous athletes are subject to special role model obligations. In this paper, we will take a different approach and give a positive response to this question by arguing for the position that sport and gaming celebrities are ‘ambassadors of the game’: moral agents whose vocations as rule-followers have unique implications for their non-lusory lives. According to this idea, the actions of a game’s players and other stakeholders – especially the actions of its stars – directly affect the value of the game itself, a fact which generates additional moral reasons to behave in a virtuous manner.
- Determinants of public perception of elite sport, opens in a new tab, Hallmann K, Rossi L, Breuer C, et al., International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, Volume 12(3), p.439-453, (July 2020). Elite sports are associated with values such as fair competition, striving to become better and challenging oneself. These are considered as social benefits. However, integrity issues relating to misuse of doping or corruption challenge this. This paper examines the determinants of public perception of elite sport by means of a survey. Logistic regression modelling assesses the effects of trust, athletes as role models, perceived costs and benefits on public perception of elite sports. The results reveal that perceived benefits have a positive effect on all public perception measures whereas perceived costs, trust in key actors of the elite sport system and viewing athletes as role models have only an effect on selected perception measures.
- The continued importance of family sport culture for sport participation during the teenage years, opens in a new tab, Åse Strandbu, Anders Bakken, Kari Stefansen, Sport, Education and Society, Volume 25(8), pp.932-945, (2020). Growing up in a family with an affinity for sports increases the likelihood of participating in club-organised sports. Few studies to date have addressed whether the importance of family sport culture is stable or changes during the teenage years. This article examines the association between family sport culture and participation in club-organised sports during teenage years and whether it differs between boys and girls.
- “She is where I’d want to be in my career”: Youth athletes’ role models and their implications for career and identity construction, opens in a new tab, Noora J. Ronkainen, Tatiana V. Ryba, Harri Selänne, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Volume 45, (November 2019). Finnish youth athletes are inspired by athlete role models whose lives are not completely constituted by performance narratives of elite sport. From an applied perspective, role models could be incorporated into career counselling with athletes to support identity development and exploration of future selves.
- Intergenerational transfer of a sports-related lifestyle within the family, opens in a new tab, Hayoz C, Klostermann C, Schmid J, et al., International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Volume 54(2), pp.182-198. (March 2019). In this article, the authors discuss the importance of a sports-related lifestyle within the family, parents’ education, and parents’ sports participation background in their children’s participation choices during adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15 to 30 years).
- ‘It’s alpha omega for succeeding and thriving’: parents, children and sporting cultivation in Norway, opens in a new tab, Patrick Foss Johansen, Ken Green, Sport, Education and Society, Volume 24(4), pp.427-440, (2019). It was evident that sport becomes taken for granted and internalised very early on in Norwegian children's lives. Less expected was the recognition that children's nascent sporting interests were often generated by sports clubs via early years schooling and, therefore, that parents played only one (albeit very important) part in the formation of their youngsters’ early sporting habits. Thus, parents, sports clubs and early years schooling appeared to form something akin to a ‘sporting trinity’ in youngsters’ nascent sporting careers. These findings may have implications for policy-makers looking towards Norway for a ‘recipe’ for sports participation.
- The inspirational effect of sporting achievements and potential role models in football: a gender-specific analysis, opens in a new tab, Wicker, P., Frick, B. Managing Sport and Leisure, Volume 21(5), pp.265-282, (December 2016). This study examines the trickle-down effect of potential role models and sporting achievements, respectively. Specifically, it examined the inspirational effect of same-sex and opposite-sex role models on male and female participation in German amateur football. Longitudinal data on German football club memberships and amateur teams were collected for 21 regional football associations over a 15-year-period. The results found that sporting success does not automatically lead to the development of positive role models and inspirational effects.
- Elite footballers as role models: promoting young women’s football participation, opens in a new tab, Dunn, C. Soccer and Society, Volume 17(6), pp.843-856, (2016). Reports the experiences and thoughts of elite female footballers in Great Britain in relation to role models. In particular, it discusses their views on how to encourage young women’s football participation from elite down to grass-roots levels.
- Role models of Australian female adolescents: A longitudinal study to inform programmes designed to increase physical activity and sport participation, opens in a new tab, Young, J., Caroline M Symons, Michelle D Pain, et.al., European Physical Education Review, Volume 21(4), pp.451-466, (November 2015). This study examined role models of adolescent girls and their influence on physical activity by surveying 732 girls in Years 7 and 11 from metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions of Victoria, Australia. Survey questions included whether they had a role model and if they did, the gender, age, type and sporting background of that individual. Survey found the majority of participants nominated a family member, peer or celebrity sportsperson as their role model who was female, played sport and was less than 50 years of age. Non-metropolitan-based adolescent girls, and Year 11 adolescent girls, were more likely to select a role model who they knew played sport than metropolitan-based adolescent girls and Year 7 girls respectively. This study highlighted that family members, peers and sports people should be included as role models in programmes designed to increase physical activity.
- The value of female sporting role models, opens in a new tab, Meiera, M. Sport in Society, Volume 18(8), pp.968-982, (March 2015). This article examines the evidence in relation to the value and functions of female sporting role models. Areas discussed included: participation, leadership, advocacy, gender stereotypes, inspiration, ethics, safeguarding and prevention, media and business and giving back to sport. The author argues that rather than just increasing female SRMs in numbers, attention should be dedicated to the selection variety that encompasses the functions of role models.
- Student responses to physically literate adult role models, opens in a new tab, G. Conlin, Science and Sports, Volume 29, Supplement, p.S17, (October 2014). The objective of this study was to identify who adolescents recognize as a physically active adult role model that might provide the motivation and added confidence needed to become physically literate themselves. Parents, family members, friends, coaches and physical education teachers were identified as active role models. There were fewer instances of coaches and physical education teachers as active role models than the others during all three phases. There were more instances of physical education teachers as an active role model after the active phase than the spectator phase or at baseline.
- Role models in sports – Can success in professional sports increase the demand for amateur sport participation?, opens in a new tab Muttera, F., Pawlowskib, T, Sport Management Review, Volume 17(3), pp.324-336, (August 2014). This paper examines whether the success of professional athletes can spill over on the demand for amateur sport participation. It reviews the empirical evidence of sporting role models and their motivational effect on sport participation. The authors conclude that the effect of professional sports on sport participation is not conclusive.
- Professional Athletes and their Duty to be Role Models, opens in a new tab, Lynch, S., Adair, D., Jonson, P., 'Achieving Ethical Excellence' in Ethical Issues in Organizations, pp.75-90, (2014). The chapter considers understandings of sport, play and athleticism from an ethical perspective and examines their relationship to professionalism to determine the extent to which ethical imperatives can logically be upheld or undermined within the professional context. The chapter calls for recognition of the complexity of ethical decision-making in the context of professional sport and recommends that the training of professional athletes should prepare them to deal with this complexity.
- Let Kids Be Kids - the kids and sports icons, opens in a new tab. Play by the Rules, (2017)
- Chloe Esposito helps mentor young modern pentathletes, opens in a new tab, Australian Sports Commission, YouTube, (26 February 2017)
- Play. Sport. Australia. Sporting Heroes, opens in a new tab, Australian Sports Commission, YouTube, (2 November 2016)
- Stick With It: Laura Geitz, opens in a new tab, Australian Sports Commission, YouTube, (1 May 2016)
- Stick with it: Stephen Moore, opens in a new tab, Australian Sports Commission, YouTube, (1 May 2016)
- Play. Sport. Australia. No Time for Never, opens in a new tab, Australian Sports Commission, YouTube, (7 October 2015)
Access to resources Where possible, direct links to full-text and online resources are provided. However, where links are not available, you may be able to access documents directly by searching our licenced full-text databases (note: user access restrictions apply). Alternatively, you can ask your institutional, university, or local library for assistance—or purchase documents directly from the publisher. You may also find the information you’re seeking by searching Google Scholar, opens in a new tab.