1. The transition to adulthood: a game changer?
Panel analyses of the impact of major life events on sport participation
Jasper van Houten
PhD Candidate
Gerbert Kraaykamp
Professor of Sociology
Ben Pelzer
Assistant professor, Methodologist

2. Sport participation during the life course (NL)
Sources: (a)Vrijetijdsomnibus (VTO) 2012 en 2014, SCP/CBS; (b)Gezondheidenquête/Leefstijlmonitor (b), CBS i.s.m. RIVM 2014

3. Sport participation during the life course (EU)
How often do you exercise or play sport?
(Source: 2014 Special Eurobarometer 412; Sport and P.A.)
Sport club membership
(Source: 2014 Special Eurobarometer 412; Sport and P.A.)

4. Sport participation: a life course perspective
adolescence
transition to adulthood
adulthood
Life phases
transition to adulthood
Life events
Starting to work
Start cohabiting/ getting married
Becoming a parent

5. Impact of major life events
Theory: a resource approach

6. Impact of major life events
Results: earlier research - ? +
Chance for (young) adults to start/stop practising a sport ? +

7. Impact of major life events
Research question current research ? ? ?

8. Method (data) NELLS (NEtherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study)
National representative panel of 15 to 45 year olds
2 waves: 2009 and 2013
Face-to-face interview & self completion/web survey
Excluded from the dataset are respondents who
Had an “adult status” at wave 1 but a “adolescent status” at wave 2 (because we want to focus on the major life events that mark the transition to adulthood); N=463
Included in the dataset are respondents who:
Participated in both waves and have no missing values (listwise deletion); N=2335
Practised sport (mostly) in a club setting at wave 1; N=522 (for analysing the switch from a club setting to another setting)

9. Method (measurements, for both waves)
Dependent variables:
Number of different sports: practised in the last 12 months
Sport frequency: times per month
Sport setting: Club; Commercial (e.g. health/ fitness centre, gym, ice rink); Group (light community/ informal); Individual (alone); Not practising sport at all
Major life events:
Adolescent status (e.g. not a parent) = 0
Adult status (e.g. being a parent) = 1
Controls
Gender (0=male; 1=female)
Etnicity (dutch native=0; immigrant=1)
Age

10. Method (analyses) Number of sports & Sport frequency
Regression analyses:
Number of sports: poisson
Sport frequency: negative binomial (because of overdispersion)
Multilevel models for longitudinal data
Between person effects: between-person differences (e.g. between parents and non-parents).
Within person effects: within-person changes (e.g the effect of becoming a parent)
Switching from a club setting to another setting
Multinomial logistic regression analyses

11. Results Number of sports Sport frequency Exp(B) sig. 0.588 0.000***
Number of sports
Sport frequency
Exp(B)
sig.
Major life events
Educational domain
Not in fulltime education vs. in fulltime education (Between)
0.588
0.000***
0.597
Leaving fulltime education (Within)
0.945
0.348 
0.897
0.258 
Employment domain
Working vs. not working >32 hours a week (Between)
1.060
0.138
1.001
0.983 
Starting to work >32 hours a week (Within)
0.975
0.723 
0.871
0.194 
Relationship domain
In a relationship vs. single (Between)
1.122
0.054+
1.063
0.449 
Engaging in an intimate relationship (Within)
0.909
0.168 
0.903
0.367 
Civil/Marital domain
Cohabiting/married vs. not cohabiting/not married (Between)
0.931
0.275
0.955
0.593 
Starting to cohabit/getting married (Within)
0.965
0.626
0.927
0.519 
Parenthood domain
Parent vs. non-parent (Between)
0.900
0.017*
0.823
0.001**
Becoming a parent (Within)
0.819
0.014*
0.792
0.052+
Controls
Female
0.783
0.807
Immigrant
0.894
0.887
0.002**
Age
Age: Being older (Between)
0.999
0.685
1.004
0.197 
Aging: Getting older (Within)
0.816
1.020
0.011*
Intercept
3.624
14.601
-41,2%
-40,3%
+12,2%
-10,0%
-17,7%
-18,1%
-20,8%

12. Results
Switching from a club setting to another (non) organisational setting
Wave 2 =
Club
(did not switch)
Commercial (e.g. health/ fitness centre, gym)
Group
(light community/ informal)
Individual (alone)
Not practising sport anymore
(young) adults who:
practised sport mostly in a club wave 1
(100%; N=522)
52,7%
15,7%
12,3%
14,0%
5,4%
And (between wave 1 and 2):
left fulltime education (15,3%; N=80)
51,3%
10,0%
15,0%
17,5%
6,3%
started working (>32 hours a week) (9,8%; N=51)
64,7%
11,8%
2,0%
13,7%
7,8%
engaged in intimate relationship (13,2%; N=69)
44,9%
17,4%
10,1%
18,8%
8,7%
started cohabiting/got married (14,2%; N=74)
9,5%
16,2%
14,9%
6,8%
became a parent (7,3%; N=38)
55,3%
7,9%
15,8%
13,2%

13. Results Switching from practising sport (mostly) in a club setting to:
Commercial
(e.g. health/ fitness centre, gym)
Group
(light community/ informal)
Individual
(alone)
Not practising sport anymore
 (N=522)
Exp(B)
sig.
Major life eventsc
Educational domain
Continued fulltime education
ref.
Left fulltime education
0.537
0.254
1.921
0.179 
2.084
0.182 
0.823
0.812 
Already left fulltime education at wave 1
1.016
0.978
1.241
0.733 
0.855
0.813 
0.257
0.171 
Employment domain
Not working (>32 hours a week)
Started working (>32 hours a week)
0.739
0.586
0.066
0.010*
0.520
0.225 
1.515
0.569
Continued working (>32 hours a week)
0.798
0.584
0.440
0.065+
1.035
0.936 
1.039
0.954 
Relationship domain
Stayed single
Engaged in an intimate relationship
2.102
0.129
0.625
0.479 
3.657
0.015*
2.031
0.431 
Continued an intimate relationship
1.099
0.863
0.501
0.319 
1.765
0.324 
0.140
0.147
Civil/marital domain
Not cohabiting/married
Started cohabiting/got married
0.512
0.252
2.668
0.154
0.696
0.504 
2.225
0.397 
Continued cohabitation/marriage
0.779
0.679
2.645
0.212 
0.908
0.874 
6.092
0.192 
Parenthood domain
Stayed childless
Became a parent
0.508
0.339
1.168
0.796 
0.743 
3.124
0.186 
Already a parent at wave 1
0.825
0.671
0.809
0.700 
0.168 
1.553
0.586 
Controls
Female
2.514
0.003**
1.073
0.841 
1.537
0.204 
1.909
0.213 
Immigrant
2.375
0.002**
0.982
0.956 
0.710
0.320 
1.521
0.353 
age (wave 1)
1.006
0.833
0.990
0.739 
1.046
0.096+
1.045
0.293 
Educational level (highest)
0.954
0.353
0.926
0.169 
0.943
0.254 
0.899
0.188
Number of sports (wave 1)
0.935
0.417
0.592
0.955 
0.898
0.212
0.664
0.013*
Intercept
0.361
0.312 
1.057
0.961 
0.128
0.051+
0.285
0.428
-93,4%
-56,0%
+276,9%

14. Conclusion
Major life events can affect sport participation during the transition to adulthood
To promote sport participation and prevent dropout during the transition to adulthood, it is important that sport providers, programs and policies respond to the specific needs and resources/restrictions related to the occurrence of major life events that mark this transition.
Further research could focus on those specific needs and resources/restrictions

15. Conclusion
To prevent this from happening

16. Thanks! Questions? J.vanHouten@maw.ru.nl
researchgate.net/profile/Jasper_Houten
linkedin.com/in/jaspervanhouten
Thanks!
Questions?