To better understand the historical pattern of sport participation in Japan, two active elderly groups—Masters athletes and senior university students—were compared. Research findings suggest that Masters athletes perceive sport as serious and competitive, and their previous sport participation leads directly to their sport participation in later life. On the other hand, senior university students are more likely to perceive sport as a playful leisure pursuit. For them, leaving and reentering sport is not uncommon. This paper presents eight possible patterns of lifelong sport and exercise participation that should be considered when designing marketing programs to recruit elderly participants, and when developing programs to meet the needs of a heterogeneous older population with a variety of beliefs, attitudes, and experiences in sport and exercise.
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Early and Later Life Sport Participation Patterns among the Active Elderly in Japan
Munehiko Harada
Continuity in Sport Participation as an Adaptive Strategy in the Aging Process: A Lifespan Narrative
David J. Langley and Sharon M. Knight
The broad purpose of this paper is to contextualize the meaning and evolution of competitive sport participation among the aged by describing the life story of a senior aged participant. We used narrative inquiry to examine the integration of sport into the life course and continuity theory to examine the evolution of his life story. Continuity theory proposes that individuals are predisposed to preserve and maintain longstanding patterns of thought and behavior throughout their adult development. Based on this theory, we suggest that continuity in successful competitive sport involvement for this participant may represent a primary adaptive strategy for coping with the aging process. Successful involvement in sport appeared to mediate past and continuing patterns of social relationships, the development of personal identity, and a general propensity for lifelong physical activity.
Recent Ankle Injury, Sport Participation Level, and Tests of Proprioception
Nili Steinberg, Roger Adams, Moshe Ayalon, Nadav Dotan, Shiri Bretter, and Gordon Waddington
. The aim of the present study was to assess whether proprioceptive ability measured by ankle complex movement discrimination ability (in N-WB and WB positions) and by JPR (in N-WB position) was related to injury history and to sport participation level and to evaluate the relation between JPR ability
Male High School Sport Participation and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Adulthood
David Eitle, Steven Swinford, and Abagail Klonsinski
A number of recent, high-profile cases involving accusations of violence perpetrated against women by both college and professional male athletes have rekindled the public debate about the relationship between sport participation and violence against women. 1 Although lively, this public debate is
The Political Economy of Mass Sport Participation Legacies From Large-Scale Sport Events: A Conceptual Paper
Alana Thomson, Kristine Toohey, and Simon Darcy
The promise of a mass sport participation legacy as an outcome of hosting a large-scale sport event is commonly featured in bid documents and the political rhetoric surrounding large-scale sport events ( Reis, Frawley, Hodgetts, Thomson, & Hughes, 2017 ; Toohey, 2008 ). In this article, we
Community Development and Sport Participation
Susan E. Vail
Many sport organizations face the challenge of declining sport participation. Traditional methods of addressing this challenge such as promotional ads and top-down initiatives that ignore community needs have not succeeded in sustaining sport participation. This action research study assessed the impact of the building tennis communities model, a community development approach based on three key elements: identifying a community champion, developing collaborative partnerships, and delivering quality sport programming. Eighteen communities across Canada were supported by the national sport governing body, Tennis Canada, to participate in the study. Findings demonstrated that communities were able to identify a community champion and deliver quality programs that aimed to increase and sustain tennis participation; however, partnership building was implemented in a very preliminary and incomplete manner. Recommendations about the benefits of using a community development approach to not only increase sport participation but also develop communities through sport are presented with implications for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners.
Trajectories of Sport Participation Among Children and Adolescents Across Different Socio-Economic Categories: Multilevel Findings From the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth
Tom Perks
As is well known among sport sociologists, opportunities for sport participation are not equal across different socio-economic status (SES) groups, with research showing that adults with high SES participate in sport more than those with low SES ( Canadian Fitness & Lifestyle Research Institute
Adolescent Sport Participation and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Michael J. Panza, Scott Graupensperger, Jennifer P. Agans, Isabelle Doré, Stewart A. Vella, and Michael Blair Evans
to study this relationship. Sport Participation and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression During the crucial developmental period of adolescence, symptoms of both anxiety and depression are widespread ( Teubert & Pinquart, 2011 ). Anxiety disorders entail excessive perceptions of fear or threat
Promoting Physical Activity Through Youth Sport
Karin A. Pfeiffer and Michael J. Wierenga
participation from the 1970s onward ( National Federation of State High School Associations, 2017 ). Regardless, when all evidence is taken together, it appears that slightly more than 50% of high school adolescents are playing sports. Data for younger children’s sport-participation rates are not as common as
An Integration Continuum for Sport Participation
Joseph P. Winnick
A continuum for sport participation is depicted and contrasted for guiding decisions on sport participation based upon integration, and for facilitating provision of innovative experiences along the continuum. The continuum ranges from regular sport with no modifications to segregated adapted sport.
