Idrott, ungdomar och identitetsskapande : En studie i hur ungdomars identitetsskapande påverkas av utövandet av en lagidrott respektive en individuell idrott

Sammanfattning: The main objective of this essay is to examine how the identities of young people are influenced by their choice of an individual sport or a team sport. The following questions are the focus of the essay: • How does the sport influence the creation of an identity for active young people? • How will the choice of an individual sport or a team sport affect the development of an identity in young people who practises sport? To achieve the objective of this essay I have used a qualitative research approach. The empirical material has been collected with help of eight semi-structured interviews. Four of them were held with young people who practised swimming and the other four with young people who played soccer. The essay is structured from Derek Layders model regarding how to understand the social reality. The model is divided into four different domains that stretch from a macro to micro level. The first domain discusses sport in the near context and is followed by sport environment, the sport situation and finally sport and the self. To be able to interpret and analyze the empirical material and come to a better understanding of how young people’s choice of sport influence the development of their identity I have used a number of theories. The theories follows Layders model and goes from more general theories regarding identity and the individualised society and groups as a social constellation to fall out in more specific theories about youth, identity and youth groups. The study shows that all of the participating young individuals valued belonging to a group highly but they found it equally important to develop as an individual. The soccer player has his/her specific position in the team which leads to a feeling of togetherness, solidarity and security, but this also lead to a limited individual freedom. The swimmers on the other hand experienced less security in the group but felt that they had a bigger individual freedom. The studies also shows that, for an individual, the importance of togetherness is not so much the fact that you belong to a team as it is important to belong to a bigger collective context. A swimmer gets a direct and concrete confirmation on their individual accomplishments which can lead to a greater self-confidence in young people who practices individual sports in comparison to the young people who practises team sports. However, within a soccer team they have collective ideals that help the players understand the importance of cooperation, team work and to show consideration for other people. Keywords; identity, youth, sport, team, individual