Speakers
Description
Sport is considered important to mitigate problems due to COVID-19 measures and thus contribute to a resilient society. Because of poverty, caring responsibilities, social isolation and/or health issues, caused or reinforced by the COVID-19 measures, (too) high thresholds can be experienced for sports participation. Our aim is to study changes in sports behavior of the population in COVID times to determine whether social inequality in sport is increasing or decreasing.
In this study we analyse changes in sport club membership by utilizing membership data of the National Sport Federation in the Netherlands (NOC*NSF). Membership data of individuals within Dutch sport federations in 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2020 is used including a total of 5.3 million members. The dataset provides amongst others insight in the number of memberships per individual and the area they live (six digit postal code - PC6). Based on PC6 information neighbourhood characteristics were added to individual data. Consequently, we analysed the development in membership inequality by area code.
First analyses on the membership data show different degrees of drop-out and changes in membership by area code and age groups. Additional analyses will focus on the divide by socioeconomic neighbourhood characteristic to add to the current body of knowledge in sport participation research. Based on the outcome of these analyses we will reflect on inequality patterns and discuss them in light of the sport promotion policies. Subsequently, we deduce policy implications and present avenues for further research.
