Participation in sporting clubs located on the schoolcampus. Is it different to playing sport at othersporting clubs?

Abstract

According to recent Dutch policy, the level of integration between schools and sports is related to school bonding and long-term sport participation. A recent innovation in the Netherlands has been the development of sport campuses where schools and sporting clubs are located near each other, though without the curricular (or extra-curricular) integration of sports into the school program. However, to date it is unknown whether the mere proximity of schools and sporting facilities has any influence on the outcomes of young people participating in sporting clubs. We performed a survey of 140 school students who participated in either (i) no sport (ii) sporting clubs near their school, or (iii) other sporting clubs. Drawing on identity theory, student identity was used to measure school bonding, and sport identity to measure long-term sport participation. The results show that sport identity was related to participation in club sports, whereas student identity was not. In addition, the location of the sporting clubs in relation to the school did not affect this relationship. It can be concluded that the mere proximity of schools to sporting clubs does not seem to provide an advantage in terms of school bonding or long-term sport engagement when compared to other sporting clubs.