International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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Dr. Hidde Bekhuis

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Guest Editor

Behavioural Science Institute, Department of Orthopedagogics: Learning and Development, Radboud University, 6525 GD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Interests: sports; sports sociology; active living; inequality in sports behavior; elite sports events

Prof. Dr. Bert Steenbergen

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Co-Guest Editor

Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, 6525 XZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Interests: sports; physical disability; active living

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Our society has reached a pinnacle in physically inactive behavior, affecting all age groups and people at all socio-economic levels. An inactive lifestyle relates to both a lack of involvement in sports activities and leisure-time physical activities, as well as sedentary behavior at work and schools. An inactive lifestyle contributes to increasing health issues, decreased participation in society, work disability and social isolation. Given the mostly advantageous values attached to physical activity and its role in improving inactive lifestyles, it is extremely important to study what motivates people to start, continue and stop having an active lifestyle. Having an active lifestyle includes doing sports or exercise, but can also involve physical activities such as commuting to work by bike. It is of special importance to focus on groups who are lacking in being active, e.g., lower-educated people, migrants, children from low-SES families and people with a disability, since being physical active generally implies also being an active member of society. Moreover, focus is also necessary on those who have a high risk of becoming inactive, e.g., people who enter the labor market and young parents.

In this Special Issue, the causes and consequences of an inactive lifestyle are highlighted (e.g., not doing sports or not being active in daily life) among all groups in society: from children to the elderly, people with and without a migrant background, people with and without disabilities, people with different educational levels, people who just entered the labor market, young parents, etc. The (in)activity of those groups can be studied with a quantitative or qualitative approach, using a micro-, meso- or macro-perspectives.

Papers addressing these, as well as related topics, are invited to contribute to this Special Issue.

Dr. Hidde Bekhuis
Prof. Dr. Bert Steenbergen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

active lifestyle
sports
sedentary behavior
vulnerable groups
migrants
disabled
life transitions

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Why Do New Parents Stop Practising Sport? A Retrospective Study towards the Determinants of Dropping Out after Becoming a Parent

by Hidde Bekhuis, Jasper van Houten and Femke van Abswoude

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(3), 342; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21030342 - 14 Mar 2024

Viewed by 1204

Abstract

Despite the known health benefits of sport, recent studies showed that parenthood is related to decreased sport participation. Changes in sport behaviour after becoming a parent have been explained by gender or with the rational resource perspective of limited time and energy. However, the latter is mostly theoretical, since empirical insights on resource mechanisms are scarce. We want to improve and go beyond these explanations by investigating them empirically and by examining sport socialisation during the formative years as an alternative explanation. Consequently, our main objective is to explain changes in sport participation after becoming a parent with gender, limited resources and socialisation with sport. To this end, we employ representative Dutch survey data of new parents (n = 594), containing detailed information on sport careers and sport socialisation, as well as babysitter availability, partner support and physical discomfort after childbirth. The results of the logistic regression analyses show that, besides gender and resource mechanisms, sport socialisation and social support seem to have a great impact on sport behaviour when people become parents. That is, men are more likely to continue sport participation, as well as people with more resources (physical, temporal and social) and more socialisation with sport during the formative years. So including sport socialisation and social support seems necessary to better explain and prevent sport dropout during major life transitions, like becoming a parent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Active Living: The Causes and Consequences of an Inactivity Pandemic)

16 pages, 594 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cognitive Job Demands and Sports Participation among Young Workers: What Moderates the Relationship?

by Sara Wiertsema, Gerbert Kraaykamp and Debby Beckers

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(2), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21020144 - 28 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1289

Abstract

Cognitive job demands are theoretically and empirically associated with sports participation in various ways. Workers may be overwhelmed by stress and fatigue from their workload and therefore refrain from sports activities, but they can also feel the need to use sports as a way to recover and detach from work. The strategy to which workers adhere can depend on workers’ resources that moderate the cognitive job demands and sports participation relationship, such as educational attainment, being a parent, or having worktime and work location control. To test our expectations, we used recent information on sports participation by young working adults from the Netherlands (N = 2032). Using multinomial logistic regression modelling, we found that workers in mentally demanding jobs were more likely to participate in sports more than three times a week. In particular, workers without children reported a higher likelihood of participating in sports more than three times a week when they experienced high cognitive job demands. Among the higher-educated, workers with high cognitive job demands were less likely to participate in sports one to three times a week. We reflect on the academic and policy-related implications of our findings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Active Living: The Causes and Consequences of an Inactivity Pandemic)

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Active Living: The Causes and Consequences of an Inactivity Pandemic

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