Abstract
The Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) developed extracurricular sports activities guidelines in 2018. The guidelines set out policies on the frequency of activities per week, the number of hours of activity per day, appropriate rest days, and other such matters. When reforming school extracurricular sports activities, parents′ understanding and cooperation with the policy is required. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence parents′ attitudes toward the guidelines for junior high school extracurricular sports activities. A semi-structured interview survey was conducted with 16 parents (2 males and 14 females) whose children belonged to junior high school extracurricular sports activities, and an interview guide was created, consisting of: (1) impressions of the content of the guidelines when they first learned of them, (2) benefits and advantages of the guidelines, and (3) harms and disadvantages of the guidelines. After repeatedly reading the verbatim transcripts and identifying the content that may have influenced parents′ attitudes toward the extracurricular sports activities, codes were developed and classified into sub-categories, medium categories, and large categories. As a result, 194 codes, 31 small categories, 20 medium categories, and 9 large categories were identified, including: concern for leisure time due to activity guidelines, risk to children′s activities due to activity guidelines, private benefit due to activity guidelines, knowledge of activity guidelines, parents′ beliefs toward club activities, trust in advisor teachers, need to secure leisure time, need to secure opportunities for club activities, and parents′ experiences.
