SPORTS CONTEXT OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILIES OF THREE GENERATIONS OF NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYERS

Internal as well as external variables, including psycho-social determinants in the life span career of top sportsmen, became an important topic in recent sports psychology. The theory of “transition” can explain the signifi cance of developmental periods relevant to age, type of motivation and sports achievements (Válková, 2007; Vallerand, 2001; Vaněk, Hošek, Rychtecký, & Sle pička, 1980; Vylleman, 2005). Life span periods are called – primary expansion (early sports socialization), selective self inclusion, stabilization and involution. Tran sitions between periods are crucial points for the further sports development of an individual. Family envi ronment is emphasized, particularly in early sports socialization (Gibson, 2002; Medeková, 1994; Reilly, Williams, & Richardson, 2005; Régnier, Salmella, & Rus sell, 1993; Zapletalová, 1999). The term “early sports socialization” is introduced and explained by Válková (1980, 2007). The background of early sports socialization is not only manag ing elementary skills, but first of all the creating of value pre ferences, attitudes toward movement, fatigue, success, failure; toward strengthening individual need for achievement and intrinsic motivation. Pre-school age and elementary school age are crucial periods of early sports socialization, which means the fi rst introduction to a broad spectrum of movement activities in a social context, mostly in a family or peer environment. Imitation of behavior, loyalty, help, protection and solving problems as well as self efficacy, identification with others ́attitudes and values acceptance are described as “generation transfer” (Matějček & Langmeier, 1981, p. 216): “Diff erent value preferences will be created in a family, in which all members value good food than in a family, where clothes and everything material is given priority or a family, where every Sunday is spent at an outdoors event and all family members go to the mountains. Parents, who like their work, can usually iniciate their children in this kind of work.” The idea SPORTS CONTEXT OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILIES OF THREE GENERATIONS OF NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYERS


INTRODUCTION
Internal as well as external variables, including psycho-social determinants in the life span career of top sportsmen, became an important topic in recent sports psychology.The theory of "transition" can explain the signifi cance of developmental periods relevant to age, type of motivation and sports achievements (Válková, 2007;Vallerand, 2001;Vaněk, Hošek, Rychtecký, & Sle pička, 1980;Vylleman, 2005).Life span periods are called -primary expansion (early sports socialization), selective self inclusion, stabilization and involution.Tran sitions between periods are crucial points for the further sports development of an individual.Family envi ronment is emphasized, particularly in early sports socialization (Gibson, 2002;Medeková, 1994;Reilly, Williams, & Richardson, 2005;Régnier, Salmella, & Rus sell, 1993;Zapletalová, 1999).
The term "early sports socialization" is introduced and explained by Válková (1980Válková ( , 2007)).The background of early sports socialization is not only manag ing elementary skills, but first of all the creating of value pre ferences, attitudes toward movement, fatigue, success, failure; toward strengthening individual need for achievement and intrinsic motivation.Pre-school age and elementary school age are crucial periods of early sports socialization, which means the fi rst introduction to a broad spectrum of movement activities in a social context, mostly in a family or peer environment.Imitation of behavior, loyalty, help, protection and solving problems as well as self efficacy, identification with others´attitudes and values acceptance are described as "generation transfer" (Matějček & Langmeier, 1981, p. 216): "Diff erent value preferences will be created in a family, in which all members value good food than in a family, where clothes and everything material is given priority or a family, where every Sunday is spent at an outdoors event and all family members go to the mountains.Parents, who like their work, can usually iniciate their children in this kind of work."The idea of the family connects generations, which creates continuity and a bond of solidarity among them Matoušek emphasizes (2003).The attention to family in a sports setting has been applied to recent research and practice, too, as mental or personality traits are formed in both external macro and micro-environments a long time before the beginning of a sports career (Bloom, 1985;Brustadt, 1992;Gibson, 2002;Medeková, 1994;Reilly, Williams, & Richardson, 2005;Štimová, 1999).The impact of parents on childrenʼs sports experiences can be positive as well as negative, due to unrealistic ex pectations (Eccles, Wigfield, Harold, & Blumenfeld, 1993).The social context of sport from the view of the macro-environment is infl uenced by the family.School and sports clubs of a micro-environment were examin ed in several studies (Amis, 2000;Bartošová, 1979;Koudelková, 1979;Pigeassou, 2000;Rendlová, 1979;Slepička & Slepičková, 2002;Suchý, 1979).The predictors come out of the social and family context and are relevant to contextual markers in a political, economic, socio-cultural and socio-psychological atmosphere.This is the reason why a life span sports career and top sports achievements should be researched not only within the physiology and motor domain, but also within the psycho-social domain, particularly in the early sports socialization period in the family.
Sixty complete families of pre-school age children were investigated by Štimová (1999).The positive influence of parentsʼ orientation to childrenʼs sports while regulating their sports interests was presented.She noted, in concordance with Medeková and Zapletalová (1984), the important infl uence of the father on the physical educational and sports activities of a child of pre-school age.Similarly, the authors of the study Sigmund, Turoňová, Sigmundová, and Přidalová (2008) agreed with the statement that "parents more active in movement educate more active children in movement" (clearly in the case of sons) and the opposite "parents less active in movement educate less active children in movement" (clearly seen in daughters).Family environment is the general factor infl uencing sports motivation, a future sports orientation in either the recreational or competitive stream (Brustadt, 1992;Cooley, Englinton, & Elliott, 1992;Medeková, 1994;Medeková & Zaple talová, 1984).Family plays a very important role in the fi eld of sport.There are three reasons -the fi rst one is that children spend a big portion of their time in the family, mainly in the fi rst years of their life; the second one is that many parents are, in diff erent roles (coach, "sponsor", driver, spectator), strongly involved in the sports activity of their child; the third one is that because sport is public, parents have a chance of providing their children immediate and concrete feedback (Weiss, 2004).
Within the context of the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) there are historically only two works concerning the biographical family context of top level athletes (Kovář, 1975;Válková, 1990).The herewith presented study is only the third one.Kovář (1975) fi rst pursued the biological and social characteristics of top level athle tes and their families in the years 1972-1973.He used a genealogical method, which includes geno and also feno-typical aspects.He assessed the family tree of 128 Czechoslovak top level athletes in diff erent types of individual and team sports.The sports orientation of their parents (as well as their grand-parents and siblings) followed by their own interest and intrinsic motivation were found to be the most important variables.The fa mily atmosphere can be deduced from that.Psychosocial factors entering into the positive development of the sports career of basketball players, members of the Czechoslovak national team, were discovered in the study of Válková (1990).The family as a primary group was confi rmed as the phenomenon of the early sports socialization of future sporters in a: certain educational style, the family sports atmosphere, communication among siblings and among generations.The relationship of parenthood, especially fatherhood in relation to football, has been systematically investigated by Reilly, Williams, and Richardson (2005) and Stratton, Reilly, Williams, and Richardson (2004).

AIM
The aim of the herewith presented study is to fi nd out the relationship between a family context and early sports socialization in families of national football team players in the Czech Republic in three diff erent socioeconomic periods.The secondary aim was to discover similar and/or diff erent cross generation variables.The impact of the study should infl uence coachesʼ education and their communication with families, which seems to be the rationale of this research intention.

Characteristics of the assessed participants, their social, family and football context
The researched sample was recruited from among current or former members of the Czech/Czechoslovak national football team.The basic group of 69 participants was divided into three subsamples (groups) per 23 participants of sequential generations of the football national team of representatives, labeled P1, P2 and P3 (P1 -the youngest, current, P2 -the middle generation and P3 -the oldest).The criteria for purposeful involvement in the investigation were: participation in the Czech/Czechoslovak national team with a minimum of fi ve competitions and participation by age and in the chronological period of the given generation.Every ge neration was infl uenced by politics, economics and sports systems, which secondarily can infl uence family atmosphere and sports development.All data were compared before January the 1 st 2008.The review of participants is presented in TABLE 1.

Subsample P1 -the current generation
Subsample description -all 23 players were members of the national team after the year 1989.The oldest participant was a member starting from the year 1991.In the current national team there were 14 players, the minimum number of competitions was 17, the maximum was 83 and the average was 42.The age of the par ticipants ranged from 26 to 38 years, the average was 31 years.A subsample was created by the current or former members of the national team who still play in the highest national or foreign professional competitions.For that reason the mentioned average age is slightly higher than we would suppose in the national team.These participants reached ten years of age (in the chronological years between 1980 to 1992) when they lived through and experienced a period of primary expan sion, and their following selection of football.They started to play and compete in school age categories.
Social, family and football context -the period after the year 1989, from the point of view of social and family context, brought fundamental political and economical changes.All these were refl ected also in changes of the family behavior of family members.The football environment was strongly infl uenced by the liberalization of society with opportunities to go abroad in youth or at an early adolescent age.The economic aspects (privatization of clubs) are often strongly emphasized by management or owners, sometimes even at the expense of sports aspects.Players' agents have a continually bigger infl uence and role in relation to players, but also clubs and parents, already from when their children are in school age categories within the system of sports classes or from junior categories in Sports Centers of Youth (SCY).In such situations they did not go through the system of "sports classes" or "SCY".They were mostly educated in the elite league clubs.

Subsample P2 -middle generation
Subsample description -participants (23) were in the national team in the period from the year 1981 to 2001.The minimum number of competitions with the national team was 14, the maximum was 87 and the aver age was 43.The age of the participants ranged from 35 to 49 years, the average was 42 years.After their per formance culmination, some of them took part in offi cial competitions at a lower performance level in a positive sports involution.These participants reached ten years of age (in the chronological years from 1969 to 1983) when they lived through an experience period of primary expansion and came to their following selection of football.
Social, family and football context -the social context of the "middle generation" is characterized as the "normalization" period after the year 1968.Governmental support for sports (as the window looking into the socialist system), especially of youth and top representatives, pseudoamateurism and the abridgement of international contacts were the main characteristics of this sports period.Movement abroad was controlled by the state organization "Pragosport" and, according to the statement of a participant from that generation, they received permission to play abroad under these conditions: they had to have participated in a minimum of 200 league competitions, 20 of which had to be in the national team and by the age of 30 years and to return 30% of the salary paid abroad to the state via "Prago-  1980-1992 1969-1983 1951-1968 sport".In spite of this fact, players and their families in this period belonged among the economically above standard.They were independent, with the motivation to go abroad or to get a contract abroad.

Subsample P3 -the oldest generation
Subsample description -participants were in the national team in the period from the year 1965 to 1987.The minimum number of competitions was 8, the maximum was 90 and the average was 40.The age of the par ticipants ranged from 50 to 66 years, the average was 55 years.
These participants reached ten years of age (in the chronological years from 1951 to 1968) when they lived through their experience period of primary expansion and their following selection of football.
Social, family and football context -the period has been called the "after war" period or the "Eastern block policy constitution" period.The main intention of this period was the restoration of the economy, of education as well as of the sports system.Support for young families was strong and infl uenced the family context, including early marriage.The phenomenon was perceived by some experienced coaches, who claimed "a good footballer is a married football player".The motivation for players, compared with the general population, was the possibility of spending their compulsory military service in sports clubs such as Dukla or Red Star and then, at the league level, to travel abroad.Departures abroad to get a contract were limited by similar rules as in the case of the subsample P2.The lower frequency of offi cial inter national matches of subsample P3 is caused by the fact of sole "Eastern block" cooperation.

Process of data gathering
Principles and paradigm -the research was conceived from the point of view of time as being ex post facto, because it was based on statements of res pondents about their past.This approach is relevant to the paradigm of the "theory of transition" (Bloom, 1994;Vallerand, 2001;Wyllemann, 2005) or the theory of the "development of motivation in the life span sports career" (Vaněk, Hošek, Rychtecký, & Slepička, 1980;Válková, 2007).
The method of data gathering was a semistructured interview retrospective of the development of the lifespan sports career of participants, including the family and sports history of each individual, especially in the period of early sports socialization.The participation of respondents, members of the national football team, was gained on the basis of the principle "familiarity" (the fi rst author communicated with them on the basis of the connections he had thanks to his position in the Czech and Moravian Football Federation) and on the basis of "snow ball selection" (one person recommended or arranged an interview with another member of the national team).Participants in the interview were in formed and agreed with the research and with the ano nymous placing of their responses into the study and also to its publication.
Semistructured interview -semistructured interviews were done in the years 2007-2008 by the author.The interview was carried out relative to the free time of the respondents in a quiet and appropriate place for them.The author (interviewer) raised four general topics relevant to the theory of transition -early childhood, life as teenagers and young adolescents, life during the top sports period, what came after that… The topic put to respondents was formulated in a general framework, like: …What do you remember…; …Do you remember…; …Do you have some memory of…; …What remains in your mind from…; etc. Nobody was pushed to answer specifi c questions, spontaneous talk was preferred.Reactions and replies were recorded in written form by a specifi c code system without use of audio re cording.

Process of data elaboration and statistical processing
Scaling -recorded information from the topic "early childhood remembrances" was coded in separte nominal items.A high frequency of these items was transferred to a nominal scale (called a "category").Categories were clustered in domains according to logical connections (e.g.mother -level of sports activities, father -level of football activities, etc.).Finally the topic "family history" is the umbrella of the structure of the coded domain.In conclusion -in the topic "family history" 5 domains with the following terminology and 4-5 categories were extracted.The check-list of the domains is as follows.Therewith the categories were re peated in the domains: domain 1.Mother -level of sports activities; domain 2. Father -level of sports activities; domain 3. Father -level of football activities; domain 4. Siblings -level of sports activities; domain 5. Siblings -level of football activities.
Each domain is saturated with 5 identical categories: 1. in the national team -at the top level (the national team, the 1 st or 2 nd highest competition of adults or at least juniors), 2. performance -at the performance level (competition of adults or at least juniors of lower than the 2 nd highest level of competition), 3. recreational -done sport only at the recreational le vel at school or in the family, without competitions, 4. sport not done -no participation in sports or movement activities, 0. this phenomenon does not exist.
Statistical processing of the categories was carried out on the basis of descriptive statistics and presented in the tables with frequency and percentage rate.As the equal number of participants (23 in each group) was included in three subsamples, comparison was ba sed on logical analyses according to the percentage rate.Comparative statistical processing of the logically selected categories among subsamples (P1 : P2 : P3) was provided using a non-parametric chi-square test at a signifi cance level of p < 0.05.The data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS 17.0.

Comparison of the level of sports activities of parents
Generation transfer of orientation to sports activities, often also at a high performance level by parents and also children has been documented.We suppose that attitudes and the relationship of one or both of the parents or any and or all of the siblings, presented in diff erent forms and at diff erent levels of their sports activities in general and especially of football, can strongly infl uence the primary orientation of participants to sports activity, in this case to football.
The percentual survey of the mother's involvement at the level of sports activities (TABLE 2) showed a clear ly documented progressive trend of high level sports participation and a declining trend of the non-par ticipation of mothers of the youngest generation (P1 group).The most signifi cant discrepancy with the expected strong infl uence of the social and family context is apparent in category 4 -the mothers did not do sports, not even on a recreational level, which is almost 75% of mothers of the national team members of the oldest generation (P3).In comparison with the current generation of mot hers (P1), in which only 30% are absolutely nonsporting.This view was to some-extent confi rmed by the data in other categories.Nearly 40% of mothers of current national team members, 30% of mothers of the "middle generation" and only 13% of mothers of "the oldest generation" did sports on a recreational level.Sta tistically signifi cant diff erences were found especially between P1 and P3 mothersʼ sports in volvement (chisquare 0.023; TABLE 8).
A similar trend is visible in TABLE 3 presenting fathersʼ involvement in sports (domain 2) but on a different percentage level.Even though 17% of P3 group fathers were members of some national sports teams, in recent P1 group fathers it was 30%.Fathersʼ participation in performance sports as well as at the recreational level was balanced in all groups P1-P3 (between 57% and 65%).
Results of fathersʼ involvement in a football environment (domain 3) are presented in TABLE 4. Summary of category 1 (football at the national team level) and 2 (football at performance level) represents 82% of fathers in group P1, 73% in group P2 and 74% in group P3.These data suggest a very high probability of the signi fi cance of generational transfer in the area of sports, na mely of football activities from fathers to sons.     3 and 4).The highest and nearly the same frequency in domains 4 and 5 are shown by category 2 (sport, or football at the performance level).Subsample P1 has in both domains 48%; P2 -43% and 39 %; P3 -30% and 26%.Similarly category 1 (sport, or football at the national team level) copies the distribution of fre quencies.The sum of frequencies in categories 1 and 2 in domain 4 (siblings -sport) is in subsample P1 78%, in P2 65% and in P3 60%.In domain 5 (siblings -football) sums of frequencies in categories 1 and 2 are shown in subsample P1 70%, in P2 52% and in P3 48%.

DISCUSSION
The fi rst unexpected outcome was an evident gender diff erence across the generations.The phenomenon of football inclusion and generation transition can be analysed within "fathers" and "siblings" domains only, because womenʼs football was not permitted or popular up to the current period.Similarly, the cause of growth of frequencies in the category 0 (the phenomenon does not exist) in domain 5 was the inclusion of siblingsgirls, who were not playing football, into this category (TABLE 5,6,7).Category 0 (the phenomenon does not exist) in domain 4 (football -siblings) means that the participants mentioned thereby had no siblings.
The second important outcome was a diff erent development of the mothersʼ sports participation in different generations (TABLE 8).Statistically signifi cant diff erences were found, especially between P1 and P3 mothersʼ sports inclusion (chi-square 0.023).Overallin the do no sports (category 4) or just for recreation (category 3), fell 69% of mothers from P1, 78% of mot hers from P2 and 87% of mothers from P3.These frequencies and results in the summary of the two categories can be to some extent regarded as an indirect con fi rmation of the trans-generation persistent model   of the "football family", where the mother provides the family background, a service for the football activities of husbands and sons.We can deduce according to fathersʼ and siblingsʼ sports and football involvement that there was a pattern of the "football family", where the mother more or less "sacrifi ces" and provides service and support for its functioning in terms of "football requirements".These data do not obstruct in the creation of back ground and on the other hand show the current so cial trend of a gradually expanding supply of paid and free services in the fi eld of recreational movement activities for women.Apart from the infl uence of the social and family context there may also be the reason of selection of partners -the parents of participants in terms of their personality and socio-psychological characteristics and focus.
The third outcome was the strong fathersʼ infl uence in football socialization across generations.When comparing the results listed in the TABLE 3 (father -sport) and TABLE 4 (father -football) there are two obvious trends.First of all, in "football families", regardless of social and family context, over 70% of the fathers of our participants did, trans-generationally, sport at the performance or top level.Secondly, this sport participation was at approximately equal frequencies, quite logically just football.It is worth noting that in fathers from subsample P1 there is an increase of sporting ones at the top level and the absence of non-sporting ones.
In other words, it can be assumed that the atmosphere, climate and orientation of interests, needs and values in ge neral of "sports", in our case "football" families, in which essentially all our participants lived, signifi cantly aff ect their sports socialization, their interests and focus, in spite of a diff erent historical and generation atmosphere.Even as we interprete generation sports transfer related to a social, family and football environmentaccording to three consequential generations of members of the Czech national football team, there is the infl uence of the primary orientation of the participants in sports to football activity, which was verifi ed by several previous investigations by Kovář (1975), Medeková (1994), Medeková and Zapletalová (1984), as well as Válková (1990) and Weiss (2004).The family as a complex entity infl uencing sport socialization is usually presented (Bloom, 1985;Brustadt, 1992;Gibson, 2002;Me de ková, 1994;Reilly, Williams, & Richardson, 2005;Štimová, 1999), the diff erent role of mothers or fathers is analysed sporadically -Dunovský (1999), Matějček and Langmeier (1981), Suchý (1979) in a general life setting, Medeková and Zapletalová (1984), Medeková (1994), Sigmund, Turoňová, Sigmundová, andPřidalová (2008) in a sports environment.
A football environment is a specifi c environment ab sorbing the family in its context, including siblings; in the assessed period just boys.Findings in domain 4 (siblings -sports, TABLES 5, 7) and domain 5 (siblings -football, TABLES 6, 7) show analogical "fathersʼ domains" trends.Sum of the frequencies of categories 1 and 2 in domain 5 (siblings -football) has the following frequencies: P1 -70%; P2 -52%; P3 -48%.Therefore a signifi cant transfer of interests and focus among siblings can be assumed.It seems to be true that sports = football for these siblings.Because psychological studies indicate the potential relationship between birth order and the general characteristics of siblings, we also analyzed the birth order of our national team members.The fi rst born are labeled as more active, dominant and independent, while the second and later born are more creative, competitive and willing to be leaders (Ma tějček, 1986).
In subsample P1 4× were the fi rst born, 18×, next in line, in subsample P2 6× were the fi rst born and 16× next in order and in subsample P3 the ratio of detected data was fi fty percent (9× fi rst born and 9× next in order).The study by Kovář from the 1970s (Kovář, 1975, p. 84) states that the majority of the national team members were among the fi rst born or the second born children.In this aspect our study diff ers, because in addi tion to the first born there were primarily the second born chil dren and next ones in order.We deduce that these fi ndings correspond with the context of diff erent periods and with the fact that our study deals only with the team sport of football.
Based on the collected data it can be assumed that the trans-generation existence of the "football family" is relatively, over time, a small, stable social group with specifi c characteristics, for which we consider the dominant eff ect of generational transfer from father or sibling to participants within the family and the football context and a minor to negligible dependence on the macro-environment, so there is the eff ect of factors of social context.A football environment is no exception (Stratton, Reilly, Williams, & Richardson, 2004).These results again indicate the importance of the transfer of interests and focus among siblings and also refl ect the participantsʼ relatively often stated desire for imitating siblings with a tendency to follow them, to compete/ co operate with them or to be better.
Signifi cant diff erences in the family context of three generatons of representative football players were found only in mothersʼ sports involvement (TABLE 8).The explanation above can point out the family cohesive context in the educational environment as well as womenʼs continuous emancipation.The results of the presented research of three successive generations of national foot ball team members (n = 69) suggest that there are trans-generational tendencies in the observed domains, identical regardless of varying political-economic-cultural-social atmosphere.We can assume a signifi cant infl uence of the family and football micro-environment that suppressed the action of agents based on the social context.

CONCLUSIONS
Results of the study of family context of the Czech/ Czechoslovak national football team members of three successive generations from the 1950s to the present show that family atmosphere and early sports socialization is an important phenomenon of the development of a future life span sports career.The fatherʼs role as a motivator of football selection, focusing not only on movement activities in general, but especially on football (former players, or later coaches of various performance level) infl uenced the specifi c sports intentions and future progress of sons.The role of mothers can be formulated as a role of promoting movement ac tivities and preserving a stable background.As to the appropriate atmosphere of early sports socialization, we infer it from the involvement of siblings in movement activities.Comparing the percentage distribution of categories in defi ned domains (mother -father -siblings from the point of view of physical and football activities) we can conclude that there is an infl uence by the family members on early sports socialization which exists trans-generationally, regardless of the chronological period, social, economical, political or cultural context.The diff erences were found only in the oldest group P3, i.e.where there was a lower possibility of the involvement of mothers in sports activities.With participants recruited from former Czechoslovak/Czech national foot ball teams as reputable football representatives, we can deduce the infl uence of family and background of early sports socialization as being important for future football career progress.As the results are interpreted according to descriptive statistics only, the data must be processed subsequently by ratio statistics.
We conclude for practice that support for participation in movement activities should be focused not only on institutions or local policy but on the family, ensuring the quality of early sports socialization and the quality of the primary movement expansion.

TABLE 1
Biographical data of individual sub-samples P1-P3

TABLE 2
Domain 1 -Motherʼs involvement at diff erent performance levels of sports activities (%)

TABLE 6
Domain 5 -Siblings' involvement in diff erent performance levels of football (%)

TABLE 7
Summary table of percentage expression of frequencies in categories for individual domains and subsamples

TABLE 8
Values of chi-square among family domains