Opting out of youth sports: how can we understand the social processes involved?

Abstract

Opting out of youth sports: how can we understand the social processes involved?Sports researchers often examine the subject of youth quitting sports through quantitative surveys using fixed-choice questionnaires. In this paper, we analyze 1,248 descriptions offered by youth in the survey Young in Oslo 2018 when asked to explain why they had left organized sports. We examine their reasons for opting out of sports and how different reasons may interact. Similar to studies with fixed-choice questions, we found both sports-internal and sports-external reasons for quitting. Our main finding concerns how sports-internal and sports-external processes appear together and reinforce the challenges some youth experience in their day-to-day lives in terms of their sports participation.

Youth Perspectives on What Makes a Sports Club a Health-Promoting Setting—Viewed through a Salutogenic Settings-Based Lens

“…In many European countries, about two-thirds of children and adolescents participate in organized sports clubs [ 8 ]. In Nordic countries the proportions are even higher [ 16 , 17 ]. There are group differences, however, with boys having higher participation than girls [ 8 ], and those who reported higher parental income being more likely to participate [ 17 ].…”

Friends in Sports: Social Networks in Leisure, School and Social Media

“…At first glance, empirical research indicates that these policies are successful, and accordingly, that being a member of sports clubs is not very distinctive or exclusive. Dropping out from sports, however, occurs at a high rate when the athletes reach the age of our respondents (16)(17)(18)(19) [45], so remaining affiliated with sports at this age would at least reflect a certain devotion and dedication to sports. As a second social-arena-specific mechanism, we suggest that the more exclusive a social arena is, the more conducive it is to the development of social relations.…”

“…That 93% of Norwegian youth take part in sports for shorter or longer periods also indicates that their social relations in sports should be diverse [1]. The high number of dropouts also points to variations in attachment to sports [19].…”

“…There are also several studies on what these social relations look like [6,7] and the consequences of the qualities of social relations in sports. Research shows that social relations matter for how sports are experienced (fun and enjoyment) [8], feelings of belonging and integration [9][10][11], social capital [12][13][14][15], health and lifestyle [16,17] and the levels of participation in and dropping out from sports [4,[18][19][20]]. Yet, commenting on the situation of social network studies in general, Small claims that ' .…”

Organisert idrett og skole som komplementære og konkurrerende arenaer: ulike mønstre for minoritets- og majoritetsungdom?

“…Også en sosioøkonomisk gradient gjør seg gjeldene for frafallsmønsteret fra ungdomsidretten (Bakken, 2017). Når det gjelder ungdoms motiver for å slutte i idrettslag, har studier fra blant annet Finland (Rottensteiner et al, 2013) og Frankrike (Gatouillat et al, 2019), i tillegg til Norge (Persson et al, 2019), vist at det å ikke forplikte seg til faste treningstidspunkter og/eller prioritere tiden annerledes er en hovedbegrunnelse for frafall, saerlig blant ungdom i videregående skole-alder (16-19 år) (Skauge & Rafoss, 2020).…”