Social capital and sport participation.

Abstract

Children throughout the world are involved in many different activities. In the industrialized world children frequently spend their time involved in sports. In this study I investigate how social capital, as described by Coleman (1988), affects sport participation for elementary school age children. Focusing on three dependent variables, soccer participation, baseball/softball participation, and total sport participation, I explore how social capital differs by school and how these differences affect levels of participation for different sports.

I use data gathered in 1998 with a sample size of 301. I test Coleman's (1988) theory of social capital. In the study I predict that soccer will be unique as compared to baseball/softball and all other sports combined in that it seems logical that it would require something special in order to get children involved. I make this hypothesis based on the fact that soccer is a relatively new introduction to the sport scene of the United States. Its popularity, then, might be linked to a type of word-of-mouth style of promotion and the family's interaction with others in the child's school.

The study indicates that, indeed, soccer is different from baseball/softball and total sport participation. Family capital is moderated through school capital variables indicating that school attended significantly affects soccer participation, while family capital plays a much larger role in predicting participation in baseball/softball.