A disrupted landscape for participating in youth club sport : A study of changes in sport and leisure time activities

• IntroductionSeveral societal and technological changes have affected youth sport and leisure time habits. The netification of leisure time has created new practices and young people have to navigate within a disrupted landscape of time, place and space.The overall aim of the study is to explore 15 year old students’ view on leisure time and sport activities. The results will be discussed from a critical sociocultural perspective with a focus on how culture, structure and agency intersect. The  indings will be compared to a similar study conducted in 2007.MethodsThe study is a follow-up, cross sectional study based on a longitudinal research project named School – Sport – Health, starting in 2001. Eight semi structured focus group interviews were conducted in 2016 (30 boys, 18 girls), based on a strategic sample of four schools that participated in 2001. An inductive qualitative content analysis guided the analyzing procedure of the empirical material.ResultsThe findings show that school and friends frame what leisure time can be and are central departure points for how to act and handle leisure time activities. Lack of time interferes with the participation in organized club sport. The adolescents drive to become independent, to experience development and belonging challenge the way organized sport is figurate. Netbased activities represent flexibility, where one can choose to interact across time, place and space, as well as across gender and age. Club sport is still, for a number of students a dominant part of their leisure time, but not uncontested.ConclusionsThe findings indicate a new tension around leisure time content and quality related to practice, agency and structure. Furthermore school work and the feeling of lack of time and development, play a more central role in the teenagers’ everyday life year 2016 compared to the results from 2007.

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Samhällsvetenskap/Humaniora

Social Sciences/Humanities

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