Summary

Earlier quantitative research shows that major life events that mark the transition to adulthood (emerging adulthood) affect sport participation, mostly in a negative way. However, insight regarding the explanatory mechanisms behind these effects, which is needed to better prevent drop out and stimulate sport participation over the life course, is lacking. This qualitative study aims to fill this gap by investigating why people change their sport behaviour during emerging adulthood, specifically when major life events occur that mark this transition period within two life domains: the professional career (e.g. entering high/secondary school and higher education, leaving fulltime education, beginning to work) and the family domain (e.g. engaging in an intimate relationship, cohabitation, marriage, becoming a parent). Analysis of 45 Dutch adults’ narratives on their sport participation during the transition to adulthood and the role of these life events, revealed that when the life events occurred, new time consuming and physically and/or psychological demanding activities, roles and responsibilities arose that are more obligatory and fixed, and held higher social pay-offs then (existing) sport activities. This altered people’s daily routines and led to a reconfiguration of resources with (new) opportunities and constraints for sport participation. Based on this new resource balance and associated opportunities and constraints for sport participation, people made a deliberate choice on if sport participation fitted in their new life situation or not, and if so, in what way/how it fitted best. However, there was diversity in the choices that people made regarding (changing) their sport participation, based on different trade-offs between their opportunities and constraints for sport participation.