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Australian youth sport needs fundamental reform if it is to re-engage those who leave the sport and encourage effective participation and greater inclusion and diversity, say researchers at Flinders University.

A new study appeared in the prestigious International Journal of Sports Policy and Politics introduces a new dynamic map of youth participation in sport called the Participation Re-Engagement (PRE) Model.

The PRE model identifies seven stages of sport participation that can be applied to different levels of sport participation, including informal and organized sport.

It is hoped that the model can help identify more opportunities to encourage young people to take up sport.

“The phenomenon of sport participation is often simplistically summarized as the beginning and end of sport. But sport participation can change over time as people go through different stages and phases of participation,” says doctoral student James Kay from the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work.

“The PRE model provides a way for sports clubs and organizations to think about participation in a flexible and dynamic way, which is critical to maximizing retention and re-engagement efforts,” he says.

“Our PRE model shows that it is quite common for people to have to take breaks due to injury, study load or career planning. However, this does not have to be seen as an end point, but rather as an unused turning point. It could be an opportunity for clubs to re-engage young people and rebuild participation,” he says.

The phases of sports participation in the Participation Re-Engagement (PRE) model:

Kay says there has been significant progress in promoting youth (aged 5-24) physical activity across Australia in recent years, but there is a problem with different approaches and systems for intervention and assessment of actual participation.

“Our PRE model has the potential to provide more detailed information about young people’s participation in sport activities over a longer period of time and to evaluate and understand their decisions,” he says.

This information could provide researchers, policy makers, government funding agencies and clubs/organizations with a more comprehensive basis for promoting sustained participation in sport.

“A new definition of sport participation that includes more phases of sport activity can help to break down barriers for groups that have previously been excluded from organised sport. This is currently a priority for the Australian Government,” says Kay.

“While the model will initially be implemented in organised sport, there is potential to apply it beyond youth sport to other areas of physical activity, exercise and leisure activities,” he adds.

The paper, (Re-)Defining youth participation in sport by James Kay, Associate Professor Sam Elliott and Professor Jean Côté (Queens University, Canada) was published in International Journal of Sports Policy and PoliticsDOI 10.1080/19406940.2024.2377543