Sports participation among Norwegian youth: a study of early sporting careers

Abstract

Despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that establishing sporting repertoires during youth is intimately related to ongoing participation in sport, little is known about how such repertoires develop during the crucial early teenage years, when the sporting habits that provide a basis for sporting careers take shape. The aim of the study was, therefore, to describe the structure of young people’s sporting repertoires as they move through a key formative period, as a basis for theorising their retention in sports participation. By providing a detailed analysis of a cohort of young Norwegians as they progressed through lower-secondary into upper-secondary school (13–16-year-olds), this study offers insights into how different sporting forms fluctuate during a period typically characterised by heavy drop-out and drop-off from sports participation. Data were obtained from a longitudinal cohort study of Norwegian youngsters attending 11 lower secondary schools based on annual surveys conducted from grade 8 through to grade 10 and used to describe cohort changes in sports participation rates and sporting forms over time. The noticeable movement between sporting forms alongside the marked shift towards informal sports during the period is likely to provide an important insight into how Norwegian teenagers not only maintain high levels of participation during the teenage years but also enhance their sporting repertoires in a manner likely to sustain sports participation through youth into early adulthood.