The educational impacts of young people's participation in organised sport: a systematic review
| Pages | 264-275 |
| Published date | 29 November 2013 |
| Date | 29 November 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-04-2013-0014 |
| Author | Karen Schucan Bird,Janice Tripney,Mark Newman |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services |
The educational impacts of young
people’s participation in organised sport:
a systematic review
Karen Schucan Bird, Janice Tripney and Mark Newman
Dr Karen Schucan Bird and
Janice Tripney are Research
Officers and Dr Mark Newman
is an Assistant Director, all are
based at SSRU, Institute of
Education, London, UK.
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of young people’s participation in organised
sport on their educational outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach – Systematic review of the literature. A comprehensive search was used
to identify all research evidence about engagement, impact and value in culture and sport. A combination of
manual and automated screening was used to select studies for inclusion in this review based on pre-
specified criteria. Included studies had to use a “high”-quality experimental research design, focus on
children and young people and have quantitative educational outcome measures. Results from the
individual studies were transformed into a standardised effect size and meta-analysis was used to combine
the results from individual studies where appropriate.
Findings – Young people’s participation in sport may lead to improved educational outcomes. Young
people’s participation in organised sports activities, when compared to non-participation, improves their
numeracy skills. Young people’sparticipation in organised sport linked with extra-curricular activities, when
compared to non-participation, improves a range of learning outcomes for underachieving pupils. These
findings are based on six “high”-quality studies conducted in the UK and North America. Study populations
included young people within the range of four to 16 years old.
Originality/value – This paper builds on the existing evidence base in two main ways. First, it
focuses specifically on the impacts associated with organised sport whereas previous reviews have
had a broader focus. Second, it uses meta-analytic methods to synthesise study findings. This
paper provides pooled effect sizes for overall educational impacts and translates these into potential
changes in test/grade scores.
Keywords Education, Sport, Young people, Systematic review
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Children and young people’s participation in sport has been a UK policy priority for many years.
This was most recently articulated by strategies to “inspire a generation” before, during and after
the 2012 Games (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2010). Successive governments
have focused on driving up sporting participation. The Labour Government elected in 1997
incorporated sport into the social inclusion agenda as a mechanism to deliver health, crime and
social outcomes (Policy Action Team 10, 1999). This administration established ambitious
targets to increase and widen the base of participation in both sport and physical activity more
broadly (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2002; Sport England, 2004, 2008). Such
targets have been upheld by the current Coalition Government and the 2012 Olympic Games
maintained the impetus to drive up levels of sporting participation. Strategies to increase levels
of youth sport targeted school sport and high quality physical education (Department for
Culture, Media and Sport, 2001; Tacon, 2008). More recently, the publication of “a new youth
This systematic review was part of
larger programme of research
examining the drivers, impact and
value of engagement with culture
and sport. This constituted one part
of the CASE programme, which
was funded by the UK Department
for Culture, Media and Sport in
collaboration with Arts Council
England, English Heritage and
Sport England. The funders’ role in
the research process involved
defining the scope of the
systematic review, identifying
search sources and agreeing
methods and tools for screening
and coding studies.
PAGE 264
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES
j
VOL. 8 NO. 4 2013, pp. 264-275, CEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660 DOI 10.1108/JCS-04-2013-0014
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