Describing early years sport: take-up, pathways, and engagement patterns amongst preschoolers in a major Canadian city

Abstract

Despite high rates of early childhood (<6 years) sport participation, limited research captures children’s experiences or parents’ motives for children’s engagement during this time. This study aimed to identify the sport take-up, pathways, and patterns of engagement among 3-5 year-old children participating in organized sport programming in a major Canadian city. Data were gathered through external observations of five programs (i.e. multi-sport, soccer, hockey, gymnastics, rugby), and 10 semi-structured parent interviews (Mage= 36.4; six female). Results provide novel insight into preschool-aged children’s sport and unstructured sport/physical activity habits, while highlighting common program elements (i.e. fundamental movement skills, sport-specific skills, deliberate play, free play, competition). Findings suggest that many existing life-span sport participation and development models do not align with delivery of or experiences within preschooler programs; continued research is warranted to determine what pathways, engagement patterns, and program activities are optimal for preschooler development, in turn, contributing to modified models.