Childhood Sport Involvement and its Implications for Occupational Success in Adulthood
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Date
2024-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
This project explores the potential effects of childhood sports involvement on occupational success in adulthood. I used unique data from the National Sporty and Society Survey (N=3,993) to conduct multiple regression analyses of US adults’ occupational success, as indicated by annual income, employment, job satisfaction, and social class. I investigate the implications of sport participation as whether you played sports regularly, participated in youth organized sport,
Preliminary results indicate that the number of years participating in youth sport regularly and organized youth sport has a positive relationship with working for pay. There is also slight evidence for a positive relationship between participating in youth sport regularly and job satisfaction as an adult. Participating in organized sports also has a positive relationship with social class as an adult.
Many factors may lead to occupational success and will be considered in this project including highest education level, socioeconomic status while growing up, race/ethnicity, and gender. But, I will be focusing on the presumptive cultural, social, and personal influences of sports. These may include enhanced discipline, influential social connections, and health and well-being that may lead to varying levels of occupational success in adulthood. An important focus will be on social mobility, and how sport may help participants move up in social classes over time.
The significance of this study is that it helps us recognize how childhood sport involvement may promote and aid socioeconomic goal attainment in the future. Childhood sports involvement is encouraged in many families and parents can justify spending money on youth sports if they know the long-term effects of participating in them offer an excellent return on investment. Thus, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of sport involvement can help not only parents to decide whether or not to put their children through sports—and at what cost-- but also it can help the general public to better understand whether or not, and to what extent, it is important to emphasize and invest in sport opportunities and development for youth.
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Keywords
Childhood Sports, Sociology, Occupational Success, Sports