Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand
Organised sport is one potential antidote to the global youth inactivity crisis. Therefore, understanding why young people drop out constitutes a key research endeavour. In part I of this series, we developed and validated a new Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire (YSDQ). In part II, we used the YSDQ-...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Youth |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/5/2/51 |
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| author | Sergio Lara-Bercial Jim McKenna Megan Hill Gareth E. Jowett Adam Gledhill Barnaby Sargent-Megicks Nicolette Schipper-Van Veldhoven Rafael Navarro-Barragán Judit Balogh Ladislav Petrovic |
| author_facet | Sergio Lara-Bercial Jim McKenna Megan Hill Gareth E. Jowett Adam Gledhill Barnaby Sargent-Megicks Nicolette Schipper-Van Veldhoven Rafael Navarro-Barragán Judit Balogh Ladislav Petrovic |
| author_sort | Sergio Lara-Bercial |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Organised sport is one potential antidote to the global youth inactivity crisis. Therefore, understanding why young people drop out constitutes a key research endeavour. In part I of this series, we developed and validated a new Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire (YSDQ). In part II, we used the YSDQ-LV (49-item long version) to examine dropout in 960 university students from seven European countries. A four-stage analysis investigated the relative and combined importance of dropout reasons. Three items—the rocks—were statistically more important: “I prioritised schoolwork and had no time left to take part in sport”; and “I found other things that I enjoyed doing more than sport”; and “I found it stressful when I did not perform/play as well as I expected”. On average, however, these rocks were rated as “moderately important”, along with 19 reasons (the pebbles) rated as “slightly important to moderately important”, and the remaining 27 reasons (the sand) rated as “slightly important to not at all important”. These findings suggest that sport dropout is not caused by a single reason but is underpinned by a dynamic tricky mix of reasons—a series of rocks, pebbles, and sand unique to each young person. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-90b9908d08314d5eb32d3cbb282e8447 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2673-995X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Youth |
| spelling | doaj-art-90b9908d08314d5eb32d3cbb282e84472025-08-20T03:29:48ZengMDPI AGYouth2673-995X2025-05-01525110.3390/youth5020051Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of SandSergio Lara-Bercial0Jim McKenna1Megan Hill2Gareth E. Jowett3Adam Gledhill4Barnaby Sargent-Megicks5Nicolette Schipper-Van Veldhoven6Rafael Navarro-Barragán7Judit Balogh8Ladislav Petrovic9Carnegie School of Sport, Headingley Campus, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKCarnegie School of Sport, Headingley Campus, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKCarnegie School of Sport, Headingley Campus, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKCarnegie School of Sport, Headingley Campus, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKCarnegie School of Sport, Headingley Campus, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKCarnegie School of Sport, Headingley Campus, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UKDepartment of Sport Pedagogy, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Campus 2, 8017CA Zwolle, The NetherlandsSchool of Medicine, Health and Sport, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Campus Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, SpainHungarian Coaching Association, H-1211 Budapest, HungaryHungarian Coaching Association, H-1211 Budapest, HungaryOrganised sport is one potential antidote to the global youth inactivity crisis. Therefore, understanding why young people drop out constitutes a key research endeavour. In part I of this series, we developed and validated a new Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire (YSDQ). In part II, we used the YSDQ-LV (49-item long version) to examine dropout in 960 university students from seven European countries. A four-stage analysis investigated the relative and combined importance of dropout reasons. Three items—the rocks—were statistically more important: “I prioritised schoolwork and had no time left to take part in sport”; and “I found other things that I enjoyed doing more than sport”; and “I found it stressful when I did not perform/play as well as I expected”. On average, however, these rocks were rated as “moderately important”, along with 19 reasons (the pebbles) rated as “slightly important to moderately important”, and the remaining 27 reasons (the sand) rated as “slightly important to not at all important”. These findings suggest that sport dropout is not caused by a single reason but is underpinned by a dynamic tricky mix of reasons—a series of rocks, pebbles, and sand unique to each young person.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/5/2/51youth sportsport dropoutsport attritionsport participationphysical activityactive lifestyle |
| spellingShingle | Sergio Lara-Bercial Jim McKenna Megan Hill Gareth E. Jowett Adam Gledhill Barnaby Sargent-Megicks Nicolette Schipper-Van Veldhoven Rafael Navarro-Barragán Judit Balogh Ladislav Petrovic Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand Youth youth sport sport dropout sport attrition sport participation physical activity active lifestyle |
| title | Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand |
| title_full | Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand |
| title_fullStr | Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand |
| title_full_unstemmed | Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand |
| title_short | Part II: Why Do Children and Young People Drop Out of Sport? A Dynamic Tricky Mix of Three Rocks, Some Pebbles, and Lots of Sand |
| title_sort | part ii why do children and young people drop out of sport a dynamic tricky mix of three rocks some pebbles and lots of sand |
| topic | youth sport sport dropout sport attrition sport participation physical activity active lifestyle |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/5/2/51 |
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