Research gives insight into children’s attitudes to sport and physical activity
Source: Sport England
Date: 21-March-2019
Enjoyment is the single biggest factor in motivating children to be active, new analysis from Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey has revealed. More than 130,000 children and young people were surveyed in the academic year 2017/18, with participation figures published in December.
This new analysis has identified five key findings that gives further insight into the attitudes of children and young people towards sport and physical activity. The five key findings are:
- Physically literate children do twice as much activity. The more of the five elements of physical literacy – enjoyment, confidence, competence, understanding and knowledge – children have, the more active they are.
- Enjoyment is the biggest driver of activity levels. Despite the majority of children (68%) understanding that sport and activity is good for them, understanding had the least impact on activity levels.
- Children who have all five elements of physically literacy report higher levels of happiness, are more trusting of other children, and report higher levels of resilience (continuing to try if you find something difficult).
- Physical literacy decreases with age. As children grow older, they report lower levels of enjoyment, confidence, competence, and understanding. Previous research from Sport England shows that activity levels drop when children reach their teenage years.
- The results also reveal important inequalities among certain groups of children which must be tackled
Currently, around three million children and young people (43.3%) are active, but a third of children (32.9%) are less active, doing less than 30 minutes of activity a day. The results prove for the first time that children’s physical literacy impacts not only the amount of activity they do, but also how much they benefit from this activity.
And now Sport England’s Chief Executive, Tim Hollingsworth, is calling for everyone involved in a child’s activity level to ensure that enjoyment is at the heart of anything they do.
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