Background to the Research

• In October 1992, the Sports Council for Northern Ireland invited proposals for a research project dealing with young people's involvement in sport and physical recreation. In response to this invitation, a programme of research was outlined which included a series of face-to-face interviews with young people across Northern Ireland and it is these interviews which form the basis of this report.

Research Approach

• Interviews, 2400 in total, were undertaken with young people aged between seven and nineteen years. The interviews schedule designed, was obviously flexible enough to encompass the wide range of young people's experiences, and lack of experience, of sport and physical activity.
• To meet these different needs and experiences, a three-part interview schedule was designed. The first part dealt with basic information including age, school type and educational attainment. The second part considered all young people's experience of sport and physical activity and finally, the third section focused on those who identified a 'top sport', that is the sport that is the sport which was presently, or had been in the past, their most important.

Main Findings

• 84% of children named at least one sport which was important to them and 75% were spending at least one hour a week on their favourite sport away from school.
• Only 18% of children in primary school (P5 to P7) played to competed at least once a week, in comparison with 32% of those in post-primary schools.
• 54% were receiving instruction in their chosen sport at least once a week (51% boys and 49% girls).
• 37% maintained they were receiving instruction from qualified coaches.
• 49% of the sample were participating at a basic or non-competitive level and only 34% had the opportunity to actually compete in their chosen sport.
• 2% were performing at elite level, but 26% felt that had the potential to perform at elite level.
• Only 28% of girls were actively participating at a competitive or elite level in sport, in comparison with 44% of boys.
• 36% were members of a total of 588 clubs, a list including 305 recognised sports clubs. Only 19 (1%) had experience of playing versions of mini-sports.
• Five sports were mentioned as being their most important by over half the sample; soccer (23%), swimming (11%), netball (6%), Gaelic football (6%) and athletics (4%).
• No sports other than swimming (79%), soccer (58%), netball (29%), basketball (27%), badminton (26%), and athletics (25%) had been attempted by more than one quarter of the sample.
• Over half the sample (55%) had attended at least one live soccer match and 24% had watched live Gaelic football; no other sport had been seen live by more than 7% of the sample.
• The main findings from the survey indicate that sport and physical recreation make a significant and positive contribution to the quality of life of young people in Northern Ireland. It also confirmed well known patterns of male and female participation, including the stronger association between male and female participation, including the stronger association between males and outdoor sport (66%) compared to females (34%).
• Young females were almost three times more likely to participate in indoor sport (74%) than males (26%) is a noteworthy reversal of the dominance of the male in sport.
• The survey found that young people rated 'getting better' as the most important factor which made them 'more keen' about sport. These attitudes have implications in terms of providing competition for young people and ultimately the wider development of sport. 'Getting better' should not be narrowly equated with winning. Young people distinguished between 'winning' and improving, only one third stating that winning was important.
• Many more young people in Northern Ireland in 1994 wanted to be able to participate at a competitive level, and by implication, to improve or 'get better' (34%). In terms of sporting excellence, many more young people felt they had the potential to perform at an elite level than the 2% already doing so. For young people this perceived potential was strongly associated with the competitive opportunities available to then at that time.
• Only 36% of young people were members of clubs in which sports were played, and only around half these club members (52%) were involved with a club where the primary purpose was a sporting one.
• Most young people have tried their 'top sport' by the age of nine. That many however, are being lost to sport is evident by the level of adult participation - around 50%, down from 80%. The findings of the survey therefore strongly suggest that sport starts with an advantage of a captive audience - young people want more sport and want to get better at it.