ISC and ESRI Publish Research on Sport and Social Disadvantage
Irish Sports Council / ESRI research demonstrates massive impact of social and educational disadvantage on rates of sports participation
Gender and age are also very strong determinants of participating in sport
March 29, 2007
New research on sport and disadvantage published today (March 29) demonstrates that the impacts of income and education on participation in sport are very strong.
The Irish Sports Council / ESRI research suggests, for those playing at least once a year, that a person who has a post graduate degree is almost 5 times more likely to play sport than somebody whose formal education stopped at the junior cert. Also, a person in the top income quartile is almost twice as likely to play sport as a person in the lowest income quartile. The effect of disadvantage is also dramatic in cases of more regular participation in sport.
The outcomes were consistent across the top 15 participation sports in Ireland including GAA, soccer, swimming, golf, cycling and tennis.
The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr John O’Donoghue TD welcomed the report: “This report makes a significant contribution to our understanding of sport in Ireland, particularly as it makes explicit the link between disadvantage and participation in sport. The report endorses the strategy of investing in sport as it produces significant social benefit”.
The report set out to examine the impact of social disadvantage on various forms of participation in sport. The demonstrated connection is so dramatic that the large majority of people who play sport in Ireland are from higher income and better educated social groups. This, in turn, allows this group enjoy the health benefits associated with this physical activity with less well off and less educated people much more likely to be sedentary.
The report notes that, as an activity with proven benefits, sport has a strong case for substantial public expenditure in support of mass participation. It draws the policy conclusion that there is a need to redirect a much more substantial proportion of expenditure towards sports activities likely to benefit the disadvantaged.
Ossie Kilkenny, Chairman of the Irish Sports Council, commented on the report “Increasing participation in sport and physical activity is our key strategic objective. This report has a strong message for sports policy in Ireland. If we want to make significant advances in sport and reap the social and health benefits we must invest in disadvantaged people and target those who left formal education early.”
Pete Lunn from the Economic and Social Research Institute who undertook the research on behalf of the Irish Sports Council said “We wanted to analyse if there were any links between disadvantage and participation in sport and it become clear that the link is strong and unarguable. This leads to the conclusion that if sports policy is to contribute to an improvement in population health then investment must be targeted at disadvantage”.
The report confirms that age and gender are strong determinants of participating in sport with men more 2.5 times more likely to play sport than women. Regarding age, a person is 1.5 times more likely to play sport than a person 10 years older.
John Treacy, Chief Executive of the Irish Sports Council; “We anticipated a connection between sport and disadvantage. However, it is the scale of connection that is the most striking and unavoidable outcome of the research. Another noteworthy outcome is that the “social gradient” is consistent across the 15 major participation sports, with a similar impact of income and education apparent in all sports”.
It is noted that exclusion from sport extends from participation to volunteering to attendance at events. Therefore the disadvantaged are deprived of the range of benefits of sport including an equal share of social capital produced by sport. The report also produced evidence to suggest that disadvantage starts early with children from designated disadvantaged schools offered less extra-curricular sport.
The report is the fourth in a series of research papers commissioned by the Irish Sports Council and undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute. The main data source is the Survey of Sport and Physical Exercise carried out in July-September 2003, which consisted of interviews with a representative sample of over 3,000 Irish adults. The chapter on schools employs a survey of schoolchildren and school principals undertaken in a nationally representative sample of primary and second-level schools in late 2004. Both surveys were conducted by the Survey Unit of the ESRI.
The research will be presented to an Irish Sports Council conference on Equity and Inclusion in Sport in Killarney on March 29 & 30.
Further information
Peter Smyth Irish Sports Council 01-8608809
Pete Lunn ESRI 01-8632013
Ian McClure O’Herlihy Communications 01-6602744