New research that focuses on how to improve behaviour at junior sport calls for a move beyond trying to fix individual parents and coaches behaviour, to instead address the sporting culture in which behaviour is learned, reinforced and normalised.
Led by Liverpool John Moores University experts in the UK and Flinders University youth sport expert Associate Professor Sam Elliott, the recently published study examines adult sideline behaviour in junior rugby league through the lens of Social Learning Theory - the idea that people learn how to behave by watching others and seeing what gets rewarded.
Published in Managing Sport and Leisure, the research observed 14 junior rugby league games, plus interviews and focus groups with parents and players across under-7 years to under-16 competitions at two English rugby leagues clubs. The research formed part of a wider project supported by England's Rugby Football League.
The researchers encourage governing bodies to support clubs to establish positive behavioural norms early in the junior pathway, particularly before the transition into older age groups where negative behaviours may become increasingly tolerated or normalised.
Associate Professor Elliott, from the College of Human Sciences and Culture and Flinders Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing, says the findings challenge one of the most persistent ways sporting organisations have approached poor sideline behaviour.
"It is tempting to identify a badly behaved parent or coach, remove them from the environment and assume we have solved the problem. But behaviour doesn't occur in a vacuum. It is a product of culture," he says.
Problematic behaviour was rarely described as exceptional or surprising, particularly among older age groups. Instead, criticism, hostility and aggressive language could increasingly become expected features of junior rugby league and be interpreted as expressions of competitiveness, commitment or passion.
"That's where this becomes a cultural problem," Associate Professor Elliott says. "When enough people behave in a particular way, then influential adults model it, and when nobody meaningfully challenges it, behaviour that once looked unacceptable can start to look normal.
"At that point, asking one parent to sign a code of conduct or removing one spectator doesn't necessarily change the environment that helped produce the behaviour in the first place."
One of the study's most striking findings was a shift in sideline culture across the junior pathway.
Younger age groups were consistently characterised by family-oriented interactions, encouragement and praise.
Older age groups increasingly featured swearing, criticism, aggressive coaching and spectators encouraging physical aggression towards opponents.
The researchers caution that age itself does not appear to cause this deterioration. Instead, as young people progress through sport, changing expectations that surround competition can alter how adults interpret acceptable behaviour.
"The question isn't simply, 'Why do parents get worse as children get older?'. We should be asking what changes in the sporting environment as children progress. What are adults seeing? What are coaches modelling? What behaviours are being rewarded? And what previously unacceptable behaviours are gradually being redefined as simply being competitive or passionate?
"If culture is part of how the problem develops, culture has to be part of the solution."
The researchers say bans, penalties, spectator restrictions, codes of conduct and awareness campaigns all have an important place in youth sport. These can establish boundaries, communicate expectations and provide consequences when boundaries are crossed.
But the research suggests that people should not be expected to transform behaviour on their own.
"Fines, bans, codes and education can all play a role. But none is a silver bullet.
"Many of these approaches focus on the individual: tell them what is expected, ask them to agree to it, or punish them when they cross the line.
"The danger is that we change the individual without changing the environment. If that environment continues to model, reinforce or tolerate the same behaviours, we shouldn't be surprised when they return."
Associate Professor Elliott says awareness is only one part of the solution.
"Education can tell people what good behaviour looks like. Culture determines whether that message survives on Saturday morning."
The article - Understanding the culture of adult sideline behaviour in youth rugby league from a Social Learning Theory perspective (2026) by Amy E Hardwick, Sam Elliott, Ashleigh Seddon, Angus Ryrie, Colin Lewis, Colum Cronin, Danny Cullinane, Katie Fitton-Davies, Steven Vaughan, Vicci Boyd and Amy E Whitehead - has been published in Managing Sport and Leisure DOI: 10.1080/23750472.2026.2711227
Associate Professor Elliott, who has coached junior athletes at South Adelaide and West Adelaide Australian Rules football clubs in South Australia, is co-convenor of the 2nd National Youth Sport Conference to be held at Flinders University in Adelaide this year (18-20 November, 2026). The conference invites industry leaders, other decision-makers and researchers to discuss issues facing the future of sport.
