Sustained sports participation in university

• Main Author: Tan, Adeline Song Ting
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::General
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144968
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Sports participation is mostly encouraged among youth in Singapore especially through programmes such as Co-Curricular Activities. Sports participation is known to provide health and social benefits for individuals. It was revealed that sports participation decreases in the latter stage as students enter university. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the factors that affect university students’ decision in their sports persistence and withdrawal in university. 10 participants (5 females and 5 males) were interviewed. Half of the participants were among those who continued their specialized sports in university whereas the other half withdrew. A semi-structured face to face interview was conducted to investigate the factors that affect their decision with sports withdrawal and persistence. It was found that participants who continued mainly due to their unfulfilled goals, teammates’ influence, and enjoyment while participants withdrew due to injuries, shift of priorities in life, and also teammates’ influence. Such findings revealed that teammates’ influence is significant in influencing behaviors. This could aid university sports administrators to develop sports initiatives, such as organising group sports activities, to encourage socialisation. Keywords: Sports participations, withdrawal, persistence, university students.