Organized Sport Activities of 11 to 15-Year-Old Adolescents: Trends from 2010–2018 and Socioeconomic Context

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to analyse the trends in the participation of Czech adolescents in organized sport activities in relation to the socioeconomic status (SES) of their families. The sample consisted of 11, 13 and 15-year-old children (N = 4425 (2010), 10,361 (2014) and 13,377 (2018)); the data were collected as part of the HBSC Study in the Czech Republic. The findings suggest that adolescents from affluent families tend to participate more often in organized sports—both team activities and individual activities. Fifteen-year-old adolescents from families with a high SES are 3.01 times more likely to participate in individual organized sports than adolescents from low-SES families. The gap between participation in sport activities increases with the children’s age but does not change significantly during the observed period. The findings suggest that public health policy should be oriented towards children from less-affluent families.