Who Plays and Who Doesn't? An Intersectional Examination of Disparities in Adolescent Sport and Physical Activity Lesson Participation

Purpose

Few reports include more than 1–2 social identities when examining organized sport and physical activity (PA) participation among adolescents. We used a quantitative intersectional approach to examine disparities in adolescent sport and PA lesson participation.

Methods

Ninth and 11th grade 2022 Minnesota Student Survey participants (N = 62,940) self-reported social identities and team sport and PA lessons. Social identities included sex assigned at birth, gender modality, sexual identity, racial and ethnic identity, access to resources (i.e., economic status), weight status, and mental health/behavioral/emotional problems. We used Exhaustive Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection to identify prevalence of participation among adolescents with different intersecting social identities.

Results

Half of the sample played sports and one-quarter participated in PA lessons. Participation varied substantially at the intersections of social identities. Whereas participants in the highest prevalence sports participation groups were predominantly White, heterosexual, and had high resource access, participants in the lowest prevalence groups held multiple marginalized social identities: only 12.8% of adolescents with least access to resources who were questioning their gender identity and sexual identity, or who reported a sexual identity not listed, participated in sports. Regarding PA lessons, youth in the highest prevalence groups were predominantly heterosexual, had highest access to resources, and were youth of color; by comparison, most of the lowest prevalence groups comprised youth who had medium/low resource access and/or high body mass index, and often a diverse sexual, gender, or racial/ethnic identity.

Discussion

Multiply marginalized adolescents are under-represented in sports and PA lessons. Organizations should address interlocking barriers to participation.