A comprehensive study of American youth sports participation over the past 60 years found that the number of children participating in organized sports has increased significantly over time, particularly among more privileged, educated families.

A national survey found that about 70% of Americans born in the 1990s who turned 18 in 2015-16 reported participating in organized sports on recreational, school, or club teams. This finding showed a fairly steady increase in participation in organized sports across generations. Just over half of those born in the 1950s reported participating in organized youth sports.

However, according to the study, there were also significant differences between generations regarding participation in organized sports.

For children born in the 1950s, there were essentially no class differences in who played organized sports. But for children born in the 1990s, the share of those who played organized sports increased by 24 percentage points if they had a college-educated parent, compared to children who did not have a college-educated parent.

“Social class in childhood plays a role in whether one has the opportunity to participate in organized sports, which is a relatively new development,” said Chris KnoesterLead author of the study and professor of Sociology at Ohio State University.

“We found that privileged families seem to use their advantages to invest strategically and purposefully in participation in organized sports. This can bring great benefits to their children.”

Knoester conducted the study with Chris BjorkProfessor of Education at Vassar University. Her findings were recently published in the journal Leisure/Loisir.

An important contribution of the study is that it provides a detailed overview of how patterns of young athletes’ participation in sport have changed over the past 60 years, something that has never happened before, says Knoester.

The study used data from the National Sports and Society Surveyconducted by the State of Ohio in 2018 and 2019. It included a sample of 3,935 adults from across the country who answered questions about their physical activity as children.

The finding that young people from privileged families increasingly dominate organized sports, according to the researchers, speaks to the increasing privatization of the youth sports industry, an increased dependence on parental involvement and an enormous growth in club sports.

“Public support for extracurricular activities in schools that began in the 1980s, including sports, has declined dramatically,” Bjork said.

“One consequence of this is the increase in club sports, which can be very expensive and not all parents are able to afford it for their children.”

According to a study, the average family paid $883 annually for a child’s primary sport in 2022. Aspen Institute’s “Play” project.

Many privileged parents see organized and especially private club sports as an opportunity to help their children achieve top athletic performance and thus possibly give them a scholarship for college and a springboard to a successful life, says Knoester.

The fact that fewer families have access to it because of the cost is worrying, he said.

One positive trend documented by the study is the increasing number of girls participating in youth sports, said Knoester.

Among children born in the 1950s and growing up in the 1960s, only about 45% of girls participated in organized sports, far behind boys. However, by the 1990s, about 70% of girls were on the fields and courts, right on par with boys.

This had a lot to do with Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibited schools from discriminating based on gender, including in sports.

“The number of girls participating in sports has increased dramatically,” said Knoester.

And the Americans were able to observe one result of this at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.

The United States won 126 medals, more than any other country – and women won 67 of them, Knoester said. If the U.S. women were a separate nation, they would be third in the overall medal count, behind only the United States and China.

“Title IX and the increasing number of girls participating in sports laid the foundation for what we saw this summer in Paris with the dominance of the Americans,” said Knoester.

Another important finding of the study is that while participation in sport has increased across generations, there has also been a worrying increase in the proportion of children who start playing sport but then give it up.

Of those born in the 1950s, just over 50% of those who started playing organized sports as children gave up the sport before their 18th birthday. Of those born in the 1990s, over 70% gave up the sport before they reached adulthood. It is much more common today for children to start playing sports and then stop than for them to play sports constantly during childhood or never play sports at all.

An earlier study by Knoester and colleagues showed that many kids who drop out do so because they don’t enjoy it or feel like they’re not playing well enough. This study suggests the problem has become more acute among recent generations of kids, Knoester said.

The problem that more and more young people are giving up sport could be related to the increase in club sports and the pressure to perform that children feel, say the researchers.

“Underlying all of this is the dramatic shift that is moving sport from being seen as a way to have fun, make friends and learn life lessons to being seen as a way to get ahead in life,” Bjork said.

We need to return to the promise that youth sport is a positive and inclusive force in society and can help all children achieve health goals, make friends and learn how to work together, Knoester said.

“We need to find ways to engage and inspire kids on the playing fields and courts without the hyper-competitive, high-pressure and expensive culture that seems to prevail today,” he said.