The young and the restful - the effects of recreational choices and demographic factors on children's participation in sport.
Mike Stratton, Lewis Conn and Tammie Smallacombe
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Contact Email:   m.strattonabs.gov.au

The increasing incidence of obesity among children and young adults is of major concern to governments. This has led to the conduct of a range of current research to support the development of policies and programs to address this issue. These include addressing the question of the amount of time children spend on sedentary activities such as watching television and playing computer games; whether there are socio-economic factors that are associated with non-participation in sport or physical activities; and whether it is possible to define a typology of and to classify children based on an analysis of their recreational choices.

To further inform this debate we present the findings of a statistical analysis of information collected in the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of Children's Participation in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities. This survey, conducted in 2003, collected information on participation in organised out-of-school hours sport, in cultural activities (music, singing, dancing and drama lessons) and a range of leisure activities - arts and crafts, reading, watching television, playing electronic and computer games, bike riding and skateboarding or rollerblading. Information on the family type of the household (one parent, couple etc), labour force status of the parent(s) and the socio-economic index of advantage/disadvantage was also compiled.

Through a multivariate logistic regression model, we quantify a number of associations between participation in organised sport and participation in the other leisure activities, together with some socio-economic characteristics of participants. The model estimates the probability of participation given the explanatory variables and so enables those with low levels of participation to be better defined. This in turn enables the development and targeting of policies aimed at increasing participation in sport and related physical activities.

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