2019, Article / Letter to editor (European Journal for Sport and Society, vol. 16, iss. 1, (2019), pp. 44-63)This article investigates the relationship between major life events and sport participation during the transition to adulthood. Two waves (2009 and 2013) of a Dutch panel study provided information on education, employment, relationship, civil/marital status, and parenthood for 2829 Dutch citizens (ages 15–45) and their sport behaviour. Our analyses indicate that respondents who left full-time education, began to work, entered and/or formalised a relationship, and became a parent participated less frequently in sport than those who did not (between-person differences). Moreover, experiencing these events reduced sport frequency (within-person changes). All events except beginning to work reduced the number of sports practised. Further, those who entered an intimate relationship were more likely to switch from a ‘heavy’ club-sport setting to a ‘lighter’, more individualised setting and to stop practising sport altogether, compared to those who stayed single. Those who left full-time education and started working were more likely to continue sport in a club setting, compared to those who continued education and did not start working. Sport providers, programmes, and policies could use these results to inform efforts to pre-empt impacts of major life events, thus curbing drop out and retaining sport participants, especially during the transition to adulthood.
2017, Article / Letter to editor (International Review for the Sociology of Sport, vol. 52, iss. 7, (2017), pp. 858-874)This article investigates the relationship between four major life events and stopping sport participation in young adulthood. We employ a neo-Weberian theoretical framework related to changes in temporal and social resources to explain how beginning to work, starting to live on one’s own, starting to cohabit or getting married, and the birth of one’s first child affect the risk to stop practising a sport and to end a sport club membership. We used detailed retrospective life-course data from the Dutch SportersMonitor 2010 on 3540 individuals to examine the sport careers and major life events of young adults (aged 18–35). Our event history analyses indicate that the risk to stop practising a sport increases when young adults begin to work, move out to live on their own, and start cohabiting or get married. The risk of ending a sport club membership rises when young adults start to live on their own and when they cohabit or get married. The birth of the first child increases the risks of both stopping a sport and ending club membership for young women, but not for young men.
2014, Article / Letter to editor (Mens en Maatschappij, vol. 89, iss. 2, (2014), pp. 195-199)A novel life stage, a fresh new sport? Life course transitions and their effect on starting a sport
In this study we establish the effects of major life course events on the odds to start a sport and on the odds to start a competitive sport. To answer our research question we employ retrospective life course data from the Dutch SportersMonitor2010 on 3.540 individuals. Event history analyses show that the chance to start a sport decreases at the moment people start living together or get married, and they have a first child. The chance to start a sport increases when they start working, start living on their own, their children leave the parental home and when they retire. Finally, being active in competitive sport foremost is stimulated by the transition to paid work and leaving the parental home.