Sport von Jugendlichen in der Freizeit vor dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlicher Trends

Against the backdrop of social trends that can be summarised as the scholasticisation of leisure time, the sportification of young bodies and fitness sports as a new sports trend, the importance of sporting activities in young people’s leisure time and how attractive the sports club is in comparison to other sports settings are examined. In particular, changes over time will be analysed. The study draws on data from a nationally representative youth sports study, which was conducted in summer 2023 as an online survey with 1978 13 to 17-year-olds as part of the Move For Health project (M4H). The M4H data is compared with the 2012 study “Youth and Sport—Online”, which contains data from a random sample of 1662 people of the same age. The results show that “doing sport” is still an important activity for young people. 60% of those surveyed stated that they were regularly active in sport. Around 42% of young people are active in a sports club, 13% use commercial sports facilities and 27% also engage in sports activities informally. All in all, the findings indicate that the social trends outlined go hand in hand with a change in young people’s sporting behaviour. In particular, however, the thesis of the sportification of adolescence, which has been postulated for many decades, seems to have faltered somewhat after the pandemic. Young people’s participation in sport in their leisure time has fallen significantly. The extent to which these developments will continue or are short-term consequences of the pandemic should be monitored further.