Welcome to a higher seminar!
Speaker
Derwin Chan, professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences in Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Title
Beyond Programme Evaluation: Understanding the Long-Term Impact of Childhood Sports Competence Training
Abstract
Community health and sports-promotion initiatives are frequently evaluated to determine whether they achieve their intended outcomes. However, the potential of impact assessments to advance theory and generate new scientific knowledge remains underexplored. In particular, we know relatively little about whether, and how, sports competence training during childhood contributes to individuals’ sustained commitment to sports and physical activity in adolescence, adulthood, and beyond.
In this symposium, Prof. Derwin Chan will present findings from a landmark evaluation of Hong Kong’s largest learn-to-swim programme, supported by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. Implemented between 2016 and 2018, the programme delivered 20 swimming lessons to approximately 16,500 primary school students. The evaluation included a pre–post quasi-experimental study of 1,609 participants, followed by a six-year longitudinal follow-up in 2023 involving 346 of these children.
The project addressed important methodological challenges in assessing children’s sports competence, including the development and validation of measures that capture competence meaningfully in a large-scale community setting. More importantly, the longitudinal design provides a rare opportunity to examine the longer-term influence of childhood competence training on adolescents’ engagement in sports and physical activity. Findings demonstrate not only the effectiveness of the programme in developing swimming competence, but also the role of competence, psychological motivation, and social and cultural contexts in shaping sustained participation over time.
The symposium will illustrate how rigorous impact assessment can move beyond accountability and programme evaluation. By linking community-based sports training with long-term behavioural and psychological outcomes, such research can generate new hypotheses, inform theory, and strengthen public-health and sports-promotion strategies aimed at fostering active lives across the lifespan.
Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Prof. Derwin Chan is as a professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences in Hong Kong Metropolitan University. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow with the British Psychological Society. Prof. Chan has over 140 publications of peer-reviewed articles related to the psychology of health, sport and exercise, and behavioral medicine. His research primarily focuses on psychosocial, motivational, and social cognitive processes underpinning individuals’ behaviours (e.g., avoidance of unintentional doping, physical activity, healthy diets, safety, and disease prevention). Prof. Chan has been recognised as the leading expert who can provide scientific evaluations on the impact/ effectiveness of large-scale community health programmes. While He is the Editor-in-Chief of Stress and Health, Advisory Editor of Social Science & Medicine, and editorial board member of six other scholarly journals.
Welcome to join us on Zoom
It is also possible to join the seminar via zoom: https://umu.zoom.us/j/65126862074
Welcome!