International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences 11(4): 872-877, 2023 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/saj.2023.110422 Does the Social Contribution of a Professional Sports Club Influence Team Loyalty among Child Participants? Takeshi Nakayama School of Health and Sport Sciences, Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, Japan Received March 9, 2023; Revised June 13, 2023; Accepted July 20, 2023 Cite This Paper in the Following Citation Styles (a): [1] Takeshi Nakayama , "Does the Social Contribution of a Professional Sports Club Influence Team Loyalty among Child Participants?," International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 872 - 877, 2023. DOI: 10.13189/saj.2023.110422. (b): Takeshi Nakayama (2023). Does the Social Contribution of a Professional Sports Club Influence Team Loyalty among Child Participants? International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences, 11(4), 872 - 877. DOI: 10.13189/saj.2023.110422. Copyright©2023 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Research on the effects of social contribution activities of commercial entities on consumers’ attitudes and behaviours has been conducted in business fields including sport fields. While there were numerous documentations between CSR and consumers’ attitudes and behaviours, some researches have claimed that there were less significant relationships between CSR and consumers’ attitudes and behaviours. This study aims to clarify the influence of social contribution activities of a professional sports club on team loyalty among child participants. This study focused on ‘Soccer otodoketai’, the original coaching method used for JEF United Ichihara Chiba, which belongs to the J League. This activity, which was intended for infants, kindergartners, and pupils, was characterised as an educational activity that accompanied football coaching. A questionnaire survey was conducted for elementary school and junior high school students who have previously participated in the ‘Soccer otodoketai’ class. A total of 789 questionnaires were distributed. Out of 636 (80.6%) responses, 634 (80.4%) were valid. Four research questions, derived from the results of previous studies, were examined. As a result of A one-way analysis of variance, participants who remembered participating in the ‘Soccer otodoketai’ class scored significantly higher in all the team loyalty items related to the experience of watching games and intentions at home stadiums than those who did not. Furthermore, the sum score of team loyalty showed a significant correlation coefficient with watching intentions at home stadiums. The results of this study quantitatively clarified the relationship between the social contribution of a professional sports club and the formation of team loyalty among children. Those who remembered their past activities with the staff of a professional sports club could become loyal fans in their community. These results might provide evidence for grassroots activities implemented by professional sports clubs. Keywords Professional Sports Club, Social Contribution, Team Loyalty, Children Participation 1. Introduction 1.1. CSR in Sport Settings Commercial entities have performed social contribution activities in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) since the 1960s [1]. Regardless of sports, research on the effects of social contribution activities of commercial entities on consumers’ attitudes and behaviours has been conducted in business fields. Positive relationships have also been established between social contribution activities and positive attitude toward companies. For example, Ricks [2] documented that a proactive condition of corporate philanthropy has an overall positive effect on consumer perceptions of corporate associations. In the sports field, Sutton et al. [3] claimed that professional sports teams and their players