A comparison of US and Scotland youth soccer coaches’ legal consciousness regarding concussion safety regulations

Abstract

Due to the severe health consequences of sport related concussion (SRC), governments and sport governing bodies around the world have enacted numerous measures including changes to legislation and rules of the game, and increased emphasis on coach education. This study compared the legal consciousness of girls’ youth soccer coaches regarding concussion management under a statutory legal regime in the U.S. and a voluntary regime in Scotland by analyzing qualitative data through ten interviews of girls’ youth soccer coaches in Scotland and another ten interviews of girls’ high school soccer coaches in the U.S. Utilizing the socio-legal theory of legal consciousness, the findings support the idea that people make connections from their past experiences to shape their understanding of the law, broadly defined. We observed variance between U.S. and Scottish coaches’ legal consciousness. Overall, all coaches exhibited a version of conformity to and engagement with SRC management guidance and little resistance. Florida coaches displayed more conformity, likely due to the SRC education mandated by law. Scottish coaches who had coached in the U.S. previously demonstrated the strongest resistance. The findings suggest a need for continued improvement in the implementation of SRC laws and guidelines including updated training and better dissemination of educational materials.

Southeastern U.S. CrossFit Coaches’ Legal Consciousness Regarding COVID-19 Restrictions

“…Defining Legal Consciousness Defined as an "outcome of social processes through which meanings and identities are collectively reconstructed" (Somers & Roberts, 2008, p. 23;Young, 2014, p. 501), legal consciousness draws on sociological and anthropological traditions (Young, 2014). Legal consciousness examines the role of law in everyday life and seeks to highlight the relationships and the contradictions between 'law in the books' (i.e., legislation, court decisions, governing body regulations) and 'law in action' (i.e., individuals' daily practices influenced by those sources; DeMartini et al, 2021;Ewick & Silbey, 2003;Young, 2014). Legal consciousness studies individual's experiences with the law and legal norms, their decisions on how and when to comply with the law, and the subtle ways law affects our everyday lives (Nielsen, 2000).…”

“…Legal consciousness encompasses a person's attitudes toward, willingness to mobilize, suppositions about, and experiences of the law (Young, 2009(Young, , 2014. Legal consciousness refers to what people do as well as say about the law (Cane, 2008;DeMartini et al, 2021). It is the "commonsense understanding" of how the law works (Nielsen, 2004;Young, 2014).…”

“…Restrictions included governmental mandates, governmental recommendations, and organization policies affecting CrossFit gyms' operations. The theory helps us understand how coaches' behaviors may be consistent with, or different from, those that the law predicts (DeMartini et al, 2021).…”

“…Foundational scholars have proposed varying definitions of legal consciousness (Ewick & Silbey, 1998;Merry, 1990;Nielsen, 2000;Sarat, 1990). Legal consciousness is a socio-legal theory that was developed in the 1980s and 1990s (Harding, 2006) to address how the law sustains its institutional power (Silbey, 2009) despite a persistent gap between the law on the books and the law in action (DeMartini et al, 2021;Silbey, 2005). Legal consciousness describes the ways people perceive and interact with the law (Augustine, 2019;Ewick & Silbey, 1998).…”

“…Legal consciousness examines the contextual considerations in which organizations, social networks, working relationships, and informal interactions influence the behavior of individuals (DeMartini et al, 2021). As such, legal consciousness can create a framework for CrossFit coaches' understanding and responses to COVID-19 restrictions.…”