Informal education and youth leisure. The influence of friends in the abandonment of physical sport activity

Abstract

The goal of this research is to determine whether the importance granted by friends to physical-sport activities influences adolescents’ dropout of physical-sport.A methodological triangulation was conducted, using quantitative and qualitative techniques. In the quantitative technique. the final sample comprised 1978 subjects, 51.7% girls and 48.3% boys. Descriptive analysis, inferential analysis (Cramer’s V), and multinomial regression analysis were performed on the data collected with the questionnaire.In the qualitative technique, four focus groups (n = 41)were employed: parents, Physical Education teachers, teachers from other areas, and adolsescents. Results show that girls’ dropout rate is three times higher than that of the boys, and they are four times more likely to abandon this lifestyle than boys.The peer group is one of the most powerful informal education agents to influence adolescents’ physical-sport practice, but its influence varies by sex. If friends grant much, some, or very much importance to physical-sport practice, girls are less likely to drop out of such practice, but when boys’ friends grant no importance to physical-sport activity, they are five times more likely to drop out.

Keywords

• educación informal
• ocio
• actividad física
• deporte
• amigos
• abandono