Lifestyles and gendered patterns of leisure and sporting interests among Irish adolescents

Abstract

This paper strives to provide an insight into the multifaceted relationships that young people have, examining the social, cultural and institutional discourses which shape their lives. We set out to discuss, from an empirical poststructuralist perspective, the way in which Irish adolescents write about the reality of their lives and privilege certain practices and forms of subjectivity. We are particularly interested in the role and significance of physical activity in the lives of young people, asking what institutional and cultural discourses are brought into play to construct particular identities and social practices associated with leisure and sporting interests. In an effort to generate more complex understandings of patterns of leisure and sporting interests, we combine two forms of analysis to explore the hows (discourse analysis) and whats (content analysis) of the narratives (Smith & Sparkes, 2005). This paper focuses on a purposeful sample of 168 written narratives of Irish post-primary students (14 to 17 years of age), chosen to represent the gender of students, a range of rural and urban school locales from different geographic locations and single-sex and co-educational schools. We focus on the interrelationships between (1) school, (2) family and friends, (3) community -localism and tradition, (4) commodification and globalisation, (5) popular culture, (6) paid employment, and (7) gendered patterns of leisure and sporting interests. The family is a strong focal point for these young people as are their friends and being part of a community. The young people (boys in particular) are significant consumers of 'media sport' and both girls and boys were knowledgeable of national and international politics. We also comment on the extent to which Lifestyles and gendered patterns of leisure and sporting interests among Irish adolescents 2 female and male adolescents negotiate, similarly or differently, culturally dominant discourses within physical activity and sport, with significantly more boys choosing to write about physical activity and sport in their narratives.

‘You're no-one if you're not a netball girl’: rural and regional adolescent girls’ negotiation of physically active identities

“…As Garrett (2004) advocates above, particular discourses around femininity, and gender more broadly, can be limiting in the ways in which adolescent girls can think of themselves as physically active, and in their construction of a physically active identity. This is of concern given the reported decline in PA participation by adolescent females both within Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011; Slater and Tiggemann 2010) and internationally (Flintoff and Scraton 2001;MacPhail, Collier, and O'Sullivan 2009;O'Donovan and Kirk 2008;Pate et al 2007;Sanchez et al 2007). Within the Australian rural and regional Foucault (1972Foucault ( , 1978Foucault ( , 1983 in particular, we contend that identity formation is inextricably linked to the contexts in which these processes are undertaken.…”

“…Similarly, extensive work has explored the meanings girls attach to physical education (PE) experiences (Azzarito and Solomon 2005;Flintoff and Scraton 2001;Lee and Macdonald 2010;MacPhail, Collier, and O'Sullivan 2009;Wright, Macdonald, and Groom 2003). As Lee (2010) surmises, this growing work has considered the impact of social devices such as gender and race (e.g., Azzarito 2009), class and geographic location (e.g., Evans and Davies 2008;Wright, Macdonald, and Groom 2003;Smyth, Mooney, and Casey 2011) and healthism and obesity discourses (Burrows, Wright, and JungersenSmith 2002;Lee and Macdonald 2010) on how young people construct ideas about health and PA participation.…”

“…In recent years, increased attention has focused on the institutional and cultural discourses that are drawn on to construct particular identities and social practices connected with sport, physical education (PE) and leisure interests, particularly as they relate to youth physical activity (PA) participation (Garrett 2004;Lee 2010;Lee and Macdonald 2010;MacPhail, Collier, and O'Sullivan 2009;Wright, Macdonald, and Groom 2003). As Garrett (2004) advocates above, particular discourses around femininity, and gender more broadly, can be limiting in the ways in which adolescent girls can think of themselves as physically active, and in their construction of a physically active identity.…”

The Study on Value of Recreational Sports Activity of Urban Communities

“…Whereas, growth and development of sport nowadays show many dimensions and may play important roles into intellectualization of nation, character building, moral education, and balancing between physical, spiritual and social needs. One of the sports that could actualize sport functions comprehensively is community recreational sports (Ann MacPhail, 2009).…”

Learning from leisure: Developing nature connectedness in outdoor education

“…An array of research (see for example MacPhail, Collier, & O'Sullivan, 2009;Wright, MacDonald, & Groom, 2003 2 ) examining young people's participation in, and experiences of, physical activity in leisure time has raised fruitful pedagogical questions for physical education in schools. For example, Flintoff and Scraton (2001) revealed the disjuncture between young women's wider physical activity experiences out of school and school-based physical education experiences.…”