Background to the Research

• There is a lack of understanding of the degree of involvement of young people in sport, and in 1992 the Sports Council for NI commissioned the authors to carry out a survey into the nature and extent of young people's involvement in sport in NI.
  

Research Approach

• A survey of 2,400 pupils aged between 7 and 18 years was carried out in 120 schools in NI using a customised questionnaire. A 'Harter' personal identity questionnaire was administered to all post-primary children in the sample, and a four-day diary was maintained by 50% (600) of the post-primary sample. Focus groups were held with elite performers, coaches and parents.
  

Main Findings

• Overall participation rates were greater for males than females, and boys spent longer practicing, got more instruction and competed more in sport than girls. Some 40% of boys played competitively once or twice a week compared with 16% of girls. Boys had greater exposure to sport both inside and outside school. The main motivation for boy's participation appeared to be competition and for girls personal development.
• Of the top 20 most popular sports, 11 were common to boys and girls. Some sports were almost exclusively male or female, netball, camogie, rounders and aerobics had over 95% of female participants, whilst Gaelic football, rugby union and golf showed male participation rates of over 94%. Soccer was the sport most competitively played by boys (46%), whilst swimming was ranked first by girls (20%).
• Ninety-three per cent of post-primary school pupils reported having a top sport with 38% of these boys and 62% of these girls participating at a basic level. Of the others, 58% of boys and 34% of girls played competitive sport and 4% each of boys and girls at an elite level.
• The most common motivators for participation by post-primary pupils in their top sport were 'athletic competence', 'preference for challenge' and 'curiosity'. Boys were more interested in PE, were more satisfied with a games-orientated and competitive PE curriculum, and held PE in a higher status than girls.
• Sixteen of the top twenty sports mentioned by pupils are offered on PE programmes across the province. School was ranked as the most influential factor in the uptake of sport (31%), and 26% of the young people reported that school was responsible for starting their interest in their top sport.
• Seventeen per cent of young people reported that their parents were the main reason they took up a sport. Thirty-nine per cent of young people mentioned family members as being most important in keeping their interest/involvement in sport going; fathers were the most important informal figure with 64% of young people recording active participation by their father and 34% by their mother.
• Seventy-five per cent of the sample were spending at least one hour per week on their favourite sport outside school, with 53% spending between 2 and 10 hours per week. Yet, only 24% actually competed on a weekly basis, with 74% of the time taken up by practice and 54% by instruction. Overall, 43% had never competed in their top sport.
• The majority of boys and girls reported starting sport at age 5-7 years, whilst the majority of those who dropped out of sport did so at age 12 and over (although the drop out rate was relatively low at 17%).The most common number of sports tried at primary school was three for both boys and girls. By post-primary school, 35% of young people had tried 10 or more sports regularly each year.
• Eighty-five per cent of primary school children had tried swimming and 59% soccer. Of those attending Catholic schools, 31% mentioned Gaelic compared with only one Protestant pupil in a Protestant school. Those at Catholic schools were slightly more likely than those at Protestant schools to mention sports such as athletics, cycling and rounders, while pupils in Protestant schools mentioned hockey more often.
• Forty-two per cent of pupils at Protestant post-primary schools stated that school was the most important reason for taking up sports compared with 33% in Catholic post-primary schools. Forty per cent of young people in Protestant schools reported their participation in sport was school based as opposed to 38% saying it was based outside school, this compared with 49% of those in Catholic schools stating that their involvement in sport was outside school as opposed to 30% saying it was school based.
• Parents acknowledged the value of sport to their children and recognised that the majority of their children's leisure time was taken up by sport. Parents, especially those living in rural areas, felt that their children didn't always get access to proper tuition or facilities.
• Elite performers recognised their dependence on the emotional, financial and practical support of their parents.
• Parents and coaches acknowledged that schools provided a valuable introduction to sport. However, it was felt that schools focused on too few sports and there was a preference within schools for team sports over individual sports. Schools were felt to be reluctant to respond to external coaching programmes and many felt there was insufficient space in the timetable for sport.
• Sports facilities outside school were felt to be inadequate, particularity outside urban areas. Information on what facilities and sports were available in each area was patchy. Leisure centres were perceived as offering restricted services to young people, especially by parents of primary school chidden.

Conclusions

• Young people regularly engage in high levels of sporting activity for its own sake. This is maintained by high levels of interest and motivation towards sport and is sometimes helped by schools and, less frequently, by clubs.
• There is a need to examine both the delivery of sport within primary schools and after-school sporting opportunities for primary-school children.
• The links between sport at primary and post-primary school appear to be weak and need to be examined closely.
• NI's post-primary school sector is segregated in terms of religion and academic ability and this creates imbalances in opportunities in sport. Grammar school pupils have better facilities, greater access to coaches and greater levels of parental involvement than the secondary sector.