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Barriers to youth participation in physical activity and sport

This is an excerpt from Social Issues in Sport 5th Edition With HKPropel Access by Ronald B. Woods,B. Nalani Butler.

According to the Aspen Institute’s 2023 State of Play Report, team sport participation for youth declined by 6 percent; however, children are casually trying new sports at a higher rate (just not playing as frequently), and participation is looking similar to prepandemic levels (Project Play 2023a). Boys (40 percent) play sport at a higher rate than girls (35 percent), and the participation of girls playing sport is the highest since 2013. The peak years of participation in youth sport are between ages 6 and 10, before a steady decline over the next five years. In fact, about 80 percent of youth athletes quit after age 15. The average age when kids quit playing all sport is 10.5 years, after averaging only 2.9 years of participation (Aspen Institute 2019).

If we are to keep more kids physically active, healthy, and fit, we need to confront the barriers that appear to be discouraging continued participation as they mature. Here are some of the most common barriers cited for dropping out of youth sports:

• Time: Just like adults, kids often complain that they have too little discretionary time, and the time demands of playing on a team seem to be increasing dramatically. The emphasis of specializing in one sport at an early age and playing that sport year-round is a trend with travel teams and is a problem for kids who want to do other things.
• Cost: Pay-to-play costs, particularly for travel teams, specialty coaching and camps, and even many school sports, have become out of reach for many families. In 2022, the average annual spending on just one child playing one sport was $883 (Aspen Institute 2022; see table 4.4).
  

  

• Overuse injuries: Early specialization in one sport puts too much pressure on young developing bodies, resulting in chronic injuries.
• Overemphasis on winning: For many kids, sports are simply set up to weed them out over time. By middle school and high school, junior varsity (JV) programs in many sports limit the number of players they carry. Alternative recreational sport programs that are less demanding on time, expense, and talent are needed to keep youth playing sports on their terms.
• Lack of training and certification for coaches: Whether they are volunteer or paid, coaches need the knowledge and experience to lead a team of young athletes through positive motivation, teaching of skills and strategy, competitive emotional skills, and understanding youth development stages.
• Gender and location: In suburban communities, the participation rates for boys and girls are comparable. In urban and rural communities, girls participate at much lower rates than boys.
• Race and ethnicity: Boys who identify as a person of color often play sport at higher rates than those who identify as White; however, for girls who identify as a person of color, the picture is discouraging. One of the primary goals of the Women’s Sports Foundation is to overcome the traditions of culture, family responsibilities, income level, and housing locations. The Latin American and African American cultures often seem to discourage girls from sport participation and instead expect them to help their mothers at home, especially in caring for younger siblings.
• Lack of fun: Over the years, the most common explanation given for dropping out of sports is that athletes just aren’t having fun. However, when asked to explain what that means, there is often a long silence because they might not be sure. They know that’s just how they feel overall about the sport or team.
• Household income: In 2023, just 25.1 percent of kids ages 6 to 12 from homes with household incomes under $25,000 played sport on a regular basis, compared to 43.5 percent of kids from homes earning $100,000 or more. Kids from the lowest-income homes are three times as likely to be physically inactive (see table 4.5) (SFIA 2024).
  

  

Household income clearly has a significant impact on the percentage of kids of all ages regularly playing sports. There are several factors that can also affect the frequency of physical activity, but family income levels show a disturbing trend downward from 2013 to 2023 (see table 4.6).

“Kids just wanna have fun” has been the most common explanation for kids dropping out of sport or other activities of choice, for that matter. Sports psychologists have struggled to define what fun is for young athletes, and they have concluded based on extensive research that fun can be defined, explained, and intentionally integrated into sport practices and games. To start, it is probably more accurate to use the word enjoyment rather than fun since it is a broader term that includes fun, even though many people use the words interchangeably (Visek et al. 2015). When we think of fun for kids, we may think of laughing and goofing around with friends, which seems incompatible with competitive sports. However, even highly committed athletes at the Olympic level claim they can only be successful if they are having fun in practice and competition.

Extensive questioning of athletes of various levels reveals that the primary components of playing sports that make them fun are effort, learning, knowledge, and improvement. Each of these factors reinforce athletes’ intrinsic motivation for practice and play. If they are exerting energy and putting effort into learning skills, understanding strategy and tactics, and improving their competitive skills, sport builds and sustains motivation. Methods for achieving these feelings through sports are largely dependent on the individual athlete’s attitude, relationship with teammates, and the skill of the team coach. Positive coaching builds self-confidence, which then leads to better performance and success in competition (Visek et al. 2018).

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