Understanding the Motivations to Host: A Study of Junior Hockey Host Families

Abstract

In North America, junior ice hockey poses a large transitional stage for athletes who wish to pursue elite careers. In their pursuance of elite careers, many players will be housed with host or billet families (Wright et al., 2019). Within the literature focused on junior hockey, host families have been uncovered as important social support systems when studying junior hockey athlete experiences (Allain, 2004; Bruner et al., 2008; Norris, 2017). Previous research surrounding junior hockey hosting programs has focused on the experiences of athletes (Allain, 2004; Bruner et al., 2008; Norris, 2017), the psychosocial development of junior hockey players (Sturges, 2018), and group functioning between former junior hockey players, parents, and host families (Wright et al., 2019). Although host families play a vital role in the success of a junior hockey organization, there has yet to be a study focusing solely on junior hockey hosts. The purpose of this study was to understand individual’s motivations for hosting junior hockey players and the factors that influence host families to host over multiple seasons. To fulfill the study’s purpose, an inductive constructivist qualitative research design was used to study current Canadian junior hockey host families. Participants (n=13) were sampled from six Canadian junior hockey organizations across four different leagues. Data were collected through virtual semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using elements of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2000). Through a process of initial and focused coding, four categories emerged and were divided between factors motivating individuals to host and factors contributing to long term hosting. The findings of this study could lead to continued improvement of hosting programs in junior hockey. Further research is necessary to identify factors that cause individuals to discontinue hosting and explore hosting in other sport settings.