U.S. youth sports participation: analyzing the implications of generation, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and family and community sport cultures

Abstract

Using data from the National Sports and Society Survey (N = 3,993), this study described and analyzed U.S. adults’ reports of their youth sports experiences. We considered patterns in ever having played a sport regularly while growing up, ever having played an organized sport, and then relative likelihoods of having never played an organized sport, played and dropped out of organized sports, or played an organized sport continually while growing up. We used binary and multinomial logistic regressions to assess the relevance of generational, gender, racial/ethnic, socioeconomic status, and family and community sport culture contexts for youth sports participation experiences. Overall, the findings highlight general increases in ever playing organized sports and ever playing organized sports and dropping out across generations. Increasing levels of female sports participation, emerging disparities by socioeconomic statuses, and the continual salience of family and community cultures of sport for participation are also striking.