Dropout reasons in young Spanish athletes: relationship to gender, type of sport and level of competition.

Molinero, Olga ; Salguero, Alfonso ; Tuero, Concepcion 等

Participation in organized youth sport is an accepted part of childhood development in western countries (Coakley, 1998) and has the potential to enormously influence the children's self concept (Smith & Smoll, 1990). Therefore, understanding the motives for youth sport participation and attrition are important issues concerning sport practitioners and researchers. Although it is generally accepted that children participate in sports for a multitude of reasons, major motives for participation include factors such as having fun, improving skills, making friends or getting/staying in shape (Gill, Gross & Huddleston, 1983, Salguero, Gonzalez-Boto, Tuero & Marquez, 2003 a). However, the same motives do not always emerge in all studies and it has been demonstrated that participation motivation may change or be dependent upon factors such as age (Brodkin & Weiss, 1990; Salguero et al., 2003a), gender (Buonamano, Cei & Mussino, 1995; Gill et al., 1983), perceived ability (Ryckman & Hamel, 1993), sport type and level (White & Duda, 1994) or the influence of family, peers and coaches (Martin & Dodder, 1991).

Beside those who have focused on why people participate some researchers have studied why people quit, especially in the rapidly growing children's and youth sports, in which attrition is extremely high (Martin, 1997; Patriksson, 1988). While the frequency of the specific motives given for withdrawal vary among studies, a number of reasons such as conflicts of interest, lack of success or improvement, lack of playing time, dislike of the coach or boredom appear in the majority of reports (Weiss & Chaumeton, 1992). To better develop appropriate contexts for sport participants, prospective studies permitting hypothesis testing and prediction of behavior are required (Hellandsig, 1998) and there is a general agreement that a comprehensive approach to the study of sport dropout should include sport and non-sport influences to provide an adequate model of reasons for withdrawal (Lindner, Johns & Butcher, 1991; Swain, 1991; Whitehead, 1995). It has to be noted, however, that although much is know about motives for people to withdraw from sport participation, research has been mostly conducted in the United States and English Speaking countries, and there is relatively little descriptive research in other countries with a sport culture different (Hoener, 2002, Salguero, Gonzhlez-Boto, Tuero & Marquez, 2003b). If cultural variations are not considered theoretical perspectives may be misleading (Weinberg, Tennenbaum, McKenzie, Jackson, Anshel, Grove, & Fogarty, 2000). Motivation for youth participation in sport and physical activity: 2000) and continued research on the motives for attrition in different countries is therefore of interest. Moreover, although past investigation has provided important initial information regarding reasons for why youngsters discontinue their participation, attrition in particular sports require further investigation and there is almost no information on the influence of factors such as type of sport or experience at dropout (Hoener, 2002; Ferreira & Armstrong, 2002; Salguero et al., 2003b; Weiss & Petlichkoff, 1989). In addition, the extent to which gender plays a role in the importance of various motives for withdrawal has been somehow ambiguous and some studies have noted key differences while others have found few meaningful gender differences (Brown, 1985; Fox, Corbin, & Couldry, 1985; Guillet, Sarrazin, & Fontaine, 2000; Martin, 1997; Martin & Dodder, 1991).

Gould, Feltz, Horn and Weiss (1982) developed a questionnaire to survey attrition in youth competitive swimming and identified having other things to do, low perceived ability, lack of fun or excessive pressure as reasons for discontinuing involvement. Using that questionnaire it has been e recently shown the importance of negative factors related with aspects of the athletic environment that lead to discontinuing in competitive swimming (Salguero et al., 2003b). The purpose of the present study was to identify main reasons for withdrawal in a large sample of young Spanish athletes, and to investigate whether reasons for discontinuing involvement vary as a function of gender, participation in individual or team sports and level of competition reached at the time of dropping out.

Method

Participants

The present investigation surveyed 561 dropouts (269 boys and 292 girls) ranging in age from 14 to 24 years (M = 15.2, SD = 1.6). The criterion for dropping out in the present study is that the individual no longer is active in sport in a sports club (Patriksson, 1988). Participants in both individual (N = 193; 90 boys and 103 girls) and team sports (N = 368; 193 boys and 175 girls) were included. Represented in the sample were youth who participated in the sport of athletics (N = 58), basketball (N = 122), gymnastics (N = 38), handball (N = 17), karate (N = 25), soccer (N = 132), indoor soccer (N= 36), judo (N = 25), tennis (N = 14), swimming (N = 33) and volleyball (N = 61). The age when the former athletes discontinued participation ranged from 8 to 17 years (M = 13.3, SD = 2.3). The subjects were drawn from different geographical areas within Spain.

Instrument

The original Questionnaire of Reasons for Attrition of Gould et al. (1982) included 32 reasons for attrition in swimming. The questionnaire was translated into Spanish using the parallel back-translation procedure by individuals that were familiar with participation and dropout studies in sport. The scale was then examined by coaches that were asked to suggest changes to the wording of the items and the directions for responding to them. The coaches expressed some difficulty interpreting three items that were deleted, resulting in the 29-item questionnaire (Salguero et al., 2003b) used in the current study. Responses to each of the items were given on a 5-point Liken type scale ranging from 1 (not at all important) to 5 (extremely important). The construct-related validity of the questionnaire was estimated by means of a principal factor analysis of the data obtained from 66 subjects. This produced six factors based on eigenvalues greater than 1.0 criterion that accounted for 59% of the total variance The internal consistency assessed by means of Cronbach alpha ranged from .58 to .87 (Salguero, Tuero & Marquez, 2003).

Procedures

The authors contacted the directors of sport clubs, explained the nature of the study and asked permission to contact former athletes from club lists. From the original list of subjects contacted a 73% of youth were recruited for the study. Subjects were informed that participation was voluntary and informed consent was received. Anonymity was guaranteed and assurance that all data would be kept strictly confidential was given. Participants were asked to answer each item as honestly as possible and parents of subjects younger than 18 were given a summary of the study and were asked to give their permission for their children's participation.

In addition to answering the Questionnaire of Reasons for Attrition, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing demographic information such as gender, age, years in competitive sport, sport played and higher level of competitive sport experience.

Data Analysis

For a descriptive characterization, means and standard deviation of individual items were calculated. In order to determine whether attrition motives could be differentiated by gender, type of sport and level of competition reached at dropout, scores for all items were used as dependent variables in a 2 (subject gender) x 2 (Type of Sport) x 3 (Level of Competition) MANCOVA, with age at dropout as covariate (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2000; Stevens, 1992). Significant multivariate effects were followed up with univariate analyses and stepwise discriminant analysis using Wilks' method. An alpha level of .05 was used for all statistical tests. Effect sizes were reported by Cohen's f(Cohen, 1988).

Results

Age at Dropout

Age when completing the survey did not significantly differ between boys (M = 15.4; SD = 1.9 years) and girls (M = 15.1; SD = 1.5 years). Mean age at dropout was significantly different for boys and girls (M = 13.5; SD = 1.2 years vs M = 13.0, SD = 1.3 years, p = .002). A significant difference was also detected between subjects practicing individual or team sports (M = 12.9, SD = 1.4 years vs M = 13.4, SD = 1.5 years, p = .005). Age at dropout did not significantly differ between subjects at different competition levels (local: M = 12.9, SD = 2.1; regional: M = 13.7, SD = 1.8, national: M = 14.1, SD = 1.7).

Reasons for Dropout

Means and standard deviations were calculated on the individual items of the questionnaire for the entire population and can be meet in Table 1. The most important reasons for dropout for the entire group were "had other things to do" (M = 2.82), "did not like coach" (M = 2.35), "not enough team spirit" (M = 2.08), "no team work (M = 1.96) and "not as good as wanted to be" (M = 1.92). The less important reasons for the entire group were "did not like the awards" (M = 1.44), "I was too old" (M = 1.48) and "did not meet new friends" (M = 1.51).

Gender, Type of Sport, Level of Competition and Dropout

A2 (subject Gender) x 2 (Type of Sport) x 3 (Level of Competition) MANCOVA, with age at dropout as covariate, was conducted on the 29 dropout reasons. The effect of the covariate itself was non-significant (F (29,531) = .92,p = .576) and the model could thus be reduced to a simple MANOVA.

A significant multivariate effect was obtained for gender (Wilks lambda = .91, F (29,531) = 1.62, p = .023, Cohen f = .12). An inspection of those items with high standardized discriminate coefficient scores and significant univariate analysis indicated that girls placed greater emphasis than boys on "had other things to do", considered less important reasons "not interested on me", and gave lower scores, although differences were non significant to "not in good enough shape" or "parents or friends no longer wanted me to compete" (Table 2).

Results revealed a significant multivariate difference for participation in individual or team sports (Wilks lambda = .89, F (29,531) = 2.32, p = .001, Cohen f = .19). Participants in individual sports rated "my skills did not improve", "did not like to compete" and "not able to be with my friends" as more important and "do not like being on the team" as less important than those participating in team sports (Table 3).

There was a main effect for level of competition reached at dropout (Wilks lambda = .85, F (58,1062) = 1.53, p < .007, Cohen f = .16). All items entered the stepwise discriminant analysis, from which a significant function emerged ([[chi square].sub.58] = 87.63) that accounted for 74% of the discriminant variance. Standardised coefficients and univariate analysis indicated that "it was boring", "did not like the coach", "not exciting enough" and "did not win enough" were the motives that differentiated the groups (Table 4).

Finally, a multivariate gender x type of sport reached significance (Wilks lambda = .89, F(29,531) = 2.11,p < .001, Cohen f = .17). Males participating in individual sports felt that "not exciting enough", "not enough fun" and "my skills did not improve" were more important motives for attrition than did team sport males. However, females participating in individual sports considered those reasons as less important than females participating in team sports (Table 5).

Discussion

A great deal of attention has been placed over the last two decades in identifying youth reasons for discontinuing sport involvement and different models have been proposed that attempt to account for the diversity of factors that influence the decision of an athlete to withdraw from sport (Lindner et al., 1991). However, a complete understanding of the underlying processes influencing withdrawal requires consideration of potential cultural variations and further investigation of influencing factors, such as gender, on which data are rather ambiguous, or information is lacking, such as type of sport or competition level. For those reasons this study, aimed to identify motives for withdrawal in a large sample of Spanish athletes, was undertaken.

Having other things to do was the most important reason for attrition when considering the entire population in our study. Although we did not specifically assess the compatibility of the double strain caused by education or work on the one hand and sport participation on the other hand, this is generally acknowledged to be a big problem for athletes. The time of optimal training and peak performances in competitive sport often coincides with the phases of school and/or higher education and starting a professional career. Therefore, the most frequently reason for attrition found in the majority of investigations is the time problem which occurs when trying to coordinate school/study/job and competitive sport and the claiming that other activities prevented participation (Burton & Martens, 1989; Gould et al., 1982; Johns, Lindner, & Wolkof, 1990; Klint & Weiss, 1986; Martin, 1997; Salguero et al., 2003b). This indicates that there are many environmental factors lying outside the sport realm that draw the athlete away and a comprehensive study of sport withdrawal should include non-sport influences such as work, study and family commitments, that are often stronger motives for sport disassociation than dissatisfactions with elements within the sport itself (Lindner, Johns & Butcher, 1991). Our data further confirm the lack of empirical evidence for theories of sport withdrawal that neglect very influential factors outside the direct sport sphere and that emphasize aspects related to lack of perceived ability (Harter, 1978; Roberts, 1984) or to the burnout phenomenon (Smith, 1986).

Dislike of the coach was the reason rated second in importance for withdrawal. All in all coaches and parents are the most important figures and supporters of young athletes and the role played by these two groups can have a tremendous effect on whether or not a child chooses to continue with a sport or dropout of athletics (Jambor, 1999; Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1988). The behaviors of coaches, in particular, have an important influence on the attitude and mental growth of young athletes and numerous studies clearly show the great significance of the relationship between the athlete and his or her coach for premature ending of continuing a competitive sport career (Martin, Dale, & Jackson, 2001). In this context coaches play an extremely decisive role in the competitive development of athletes and their supporting or inhibiting influence cannot be estimated too highly (Robertson, 1989). The coach is not only responsible for a successful career in competitive sport but may also be responsible for the termination of a career. Thus, conflicts with the coaches are among the main reasons for dropout adduced by competitive swimmers (Martin, 1997; Petlichkoff, 1992; Salguero et al., 2003b) and in rhythmic gymnastics the authoritarian behavior of the coaches and officials, as well as their lack of openness and readiness to discuss things have been identified as important reasons for dropout (Bussmann, 2004). To avoid failure coaches must be competent in the knowledge of skills necessary for a particular sport and must know how to properly teach them to young athletes and understanding coaching preferences of children may assist to facilitate desirable coach-athlete interactions and to improve adherence in youth sports programs (Martin et al., 2001). Training programs aimed to enhancing coach-athlete relationship have been demonstrated to reduce the rate of withdrawal in young baseball players (Barnett, Smoll, & Smith, 1992).

In our research there seemed to be little gender difference with regard to the reasons considered as more important for terminating participation and conflict of interests was the main reason of withdrawal for both males and females, which confirms previous data obtained using an instrument with open-ended items by Martin (1997). Discriminant analysis showed, however, the existence of some differences, with perceived ability and influence of parents and friends rated as more important by males and having other things to do rated higher by females. Data from the present investigation do not coincide with the report that perceived ability appears to contribute to termination most often in females (Martin, 1997) but, in any case, are consistent with results from different studies (Fox et al., 1985; Martin & Dodder, 1991) suggesting that those who perceive themselves as athletics are more likely to maintain participation. Although influence of parents or friends was generally given a relatively low importance, a fact already reported in previous research (Martin & Dodder, 1991), there was a significant gender difference in the importance given to the influence of others. The lower ratings by females could be explained by findings in the literature suggesting that women tend to be intrinsically motivated and that girls are typically more task-oriented than boys (White, Kavussanu, & Guest, 1998; Whitehead, 1995). This may reflect boys' socialization to achieve in sport and would support the model of Eccles' expectancy-value (Eccles & Harold, 1991).

Complete understanding of the underlying processes influencing sport withdrawal requires consideration of a number of factors related to sport participation, such as type of sport or experience at dropout, on which there is still a dearth of studies (Hoener, 2002; Ferrerira & Armstrong, 2002; Salguero, Gonzalez-Boto, Tuero & Marquez, 2003b; Weiss & Petlichkoff, 1989). Some differences in the reasons for attrition were detected in our research according to previous participation in individual or team sports. An inadequate team atmosphere was rated more important by team-sport athletes, while factors linked to competition contributed more to withdrawal in individual-sport athletes. This could be linked to personality differences that determine the choice of participation in individual or team sports. In fact, it is known that team-sport athletes tend to be more extroverted than individual-sport athletes (Morgan, 1971) and they are also, more field-dependent, being more affected by the social environment (Cano & Marquez, 1995). An additional fact complicating dropout comparisons was the presence of a significant gender x type of sport interaction, with reasons related to luck of fun and enjoyment rated higher by women participating in team sports and men participating in individual sports. A possible explanation for this result id the fact that fun has been considered in different studies as an important motive for female participation in sport (Salguero et al., 2003a; Weinberg et al., 2000), and fun-related reasons could more easily emerge in a teamwork context, in which more socially aware subjects tend to be involved.

The different combination of sport-related and milieu-related factors in low level and high level participant-dropouts supports the prediction by Lindner et al. (1991) that reasons for attrition will be different according to the nature of the former involvement in sport. When influence of level of competition on discontinued involvement was studied, it was found that low-level dropouts rated fun higher than athletes with more experience. This result confirms the importance of a motivation atmosphere for the maintenance of participation in younger athletes, while more experienced subjects, who had decided to continue involvement, would be less affected by sources of fun and enjoyment. Competing at higher levels also results in a lower importance given to winning enough, which does not mean that the more experienced athletes do not enjoy receiving awards and medals but simply that other forms of satisfaction are more important that external rewards (Gould, Medbery & Tuffey, 2001). This reinforces the necessity for coaches to emphasize the importance of task-oriented focus for young and less experienced athletes.

In summary, the results of this study have provided insight into the reasons for dropout of Spanish boys and girls involved in youth sport programs, supporting the hypothesis that not only dissatisfactions with elements within the sport itself, but also non sport influences are strong motives for sport dissociation. Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of dropout it is necessary not only to make an effort to modify the training atmosphere and to structure the sport environment so the needs of the athletes can be met, but also to include conditions outside the sport when planning the individual career of youth athletes. The results also provide encouragement and a strong rationale for the use of psychosocial approaches in examinations of the youth sport experience.

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Olga Molinero, Alfonso Salguero, Concepcion Tuero, Eduardo Alvarez and Sara Marquez University of Leon, Spain

Address Correspondence To: Sara Marquez, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Fisica y el Deporte, Universidad de Leon, Campus Universitario, 24071 Leon, Spain. E-mail: inesmr@unileon.es. Phone: 34 987 291258; Fax 34 987 291267.

Table 1
Mean and Standard Deviations on the Individual Items of the
Questionnaire for the Entire Population

Item M SD

Had other things to do 2.82 1.48
Did not like the coach 2.35 1.54
Not enough team spirit 2.08 1.34
No team work 1.96 1.23
Not as good as wanted to be 1.92 1.07
Not able to be with my friends 1.89 1.23
Did not get enough recognition 1.89 1.23
The training was too hard 1.88 1.06
Did not compete enough 1.87 1.20
Not interested in me 1.86 1.21
Not enough fun 1.84 1.17
Did not win enough 1.80 1.13
Was not popular 1.79 1.15
Friends no longer compete 1.77 1.21
My skills did not improve 1.77 1.06
Not exciting enough 1.76 1.06
Wanted to play another sport 1.75 1.28
Did not feel important enough 1.74 1.09
Did not like the pressure 1.74 1.12
Not in good enough shape 1.73 1.04
Did not receive enough rewards 1.72 1.09
Did not travel enough 1.71 1.12
Parents or friends no longer wanted me to compete 1.65 1.18
It was boring 1.62 1.05
Did not like being on the team 1.62 1.06
Did not like to compete 1.61 1.08
Did not meet new friends 1.51 0.98
1 was too old 1.48 1.01
Did not like the awards 1.44 0.91

Table 2
Discriminant Analysis of Gender Differences

 Rating mean

 Discriminant Boys Girls
Item p coefficient (N = 269) (N = 292)

Had other things to do .022 -.378 2.67 2.95

Not interested on me .001 .750 1.98 1.76

Not in good enough shape .058 .345 1.81 1.65

Parents or friends no
longer wanted me to
compete .065 .319 1.72 1.56

Table 3
Discriminant Analysis of Type of Sport Differences

 Rating mean

 Discriminant Individual Team
Item p Coefficient (N = 193) (N = 368)

Do not like being on
the team .001 .605 1.39 1.72

My skills did not
improve .019 -.413 1.80 1.74

Did not like to compete .034 -.327 1.71 1.56

Not able to be with my
friends .001 -.714 1.69 1.85

Table 4
Discriminant Analysis of Level of Competition Differences

 Discriminant
Item p Coefficient

It was boring .032 .375
Did not like the coach .039 .308
Not exciting enough .015 -.427
Did not win enough .041 -.317

 Rating mean

 Local Regional National
Item (N = 360) (N = 160) (N = 41)

It was boring 1.69 1.73 1.53
Did not like the coach 2.23 2.64 2.08
Not exciting enough 1.81 1.70 1.65
Did not win enough 1.89 1.63 1.55

Table 5
Discriminant Analysis of Gender x Type of Sport Interaction

 Discriminant
Item p Coefficient

Not enough fun .006 .523
Not exciting enough .002 .587
My skills did not improve .037 -.332

 Rating mean

 Male

 Individual Team
Item (N = 90) (N = 193)

Not enough fun 2.19 1.86
Not exciting enough 2.02 1.71
My skills did not improve 1.92 1.65

 Rating mean

 Female

 Individual Team
Item (N = 103) (N = 175)

Not enough fun 1.62 1.84
Not exciting enough 1.57 1.79
My skills did not improve 1.70 1.83