Abstract
In Sweden, participation in club sport is a vital part of many children’s lives. Despite this, many stop in their teenage years, raising questions concerning if and in what ways club sport can provide health-promoting activities via longer, sustained participation. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to explore and discuss young people’s views of club sport from a health-promoting perspective. The analysis draws on three sets of qualitative data: results from focus groups interviews conducted in 2007 (n = 14) and in 2016 (n = 8) as well as 18 in-depth interviews conducted 2008. Antonovsy’s salutogenic theory and his sense of coherence (SOC) model inspired the analysis. Teenagers want to be a part of club sport because of a sense of enjoyment, learning, belonging and feeling healthy. Teenagers stop when sport becomes too serious, non-flexible, time-consuming and too competitive. The urge for flexibility and possibilities to make individual decisions were emphasised in 2016. The organisation of club sport, it seems, has not adapted to changes in society and a generation of teenagers’ health interests. Club sport has the potential to be a health-promoting arena, but the focus should be on changing the club sport environment, instead of a focus on changing young people.
Highlights
Many young people engage in sport because it is fun and joyful [1,2]
Club sport has the potential to be a health-promoting arena, but the focus should be on changing the club sport environment, instead of a focus on changing young people
From one of the focus group interviews, said: To learn a new dance, to learn something new . . . so you learn so much about pace and melodies and so . . . control your body better and feel like a pro . . . you move like a professional, you can control and rule yourself
Summary
Sport Confederation (SSC) at some time during childhood [3,4,5] Different factors, such as social class [6,7,8,9,10], gender [11,12], and parents’ own interest in sport [11,13], affect teenagers’ participation and continuing in club sport. During the last 10 years in Sweden, the number of dropouts from club sport among children and adolescents have increased [3,18] and the Swedish government has allocated additional money to local sports clubs belonging to the SSC in order to stimulate more young people to be physically active by participating in club sport [19,20]
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