A sweeping study of U.S. youth sports participation over the past 60 years found that there has been a significant increase over time in kids playing organized sports – but particularly among more privileged, educated families.
A national survey found that about 70% of Americans born in the ’90s and reaching age 18 by 2015-16 said they took part in organized sports through recreational, school, or club teams. This finding showed a rather steady increase in organized sports participation across generations. Slightly more than half of those born in the ’50s reported participating in organized youth sports.
But there were also significant generational variations in who took part in organized sports, the study found.
For kids born in the ’50s, there were essentially no class differences in who played organized sports. But for kids born in the ’90s, the share of those who played organized sports grew to be 24 percentage points higher when they had a college-educated parent when compared to not having had a college-educated parent.
“Childhood social class matters when it comes to whether you have the opportunity to participate in organized sports, something which is a relatively recent development,” said , professor of education at Vassar. Their results were published recently in the journal by Knoester and colleagues showed that many kids who drop out do it because they were not having fun, or felt they were not a good enough player. This study suggests that the problem has been getting worse for recent generations of kids, Knoester said.
The issue of more youth dropping out of sports may be connected to the growth of club sports and the pressures kids feel to excel, the researchers said.
“Underlying all of this is the dramatic shift from sports being seen as a way to have fun and make friends and learn life lessons to sports being a way to get ahead in life,” Bjork said.
There’s a need to return to the promise of youth sports as a positive and inclusive force in society, and a way to help all kids meet health goals, make friends and learn how to work together, Knoester said.
“We need to find ways to keep kids involved and positive on the fields and courts, without the hyper-competitive, high-pressure, expensive culture that seems to predominate today,” he said.
