10 | Chapter 1 of the parental home and start living on their own, graduate and find their first paid job, start cohabiting, get married and become parents (Allender et al., 2008; Arnett, 2007; Scheerder et al., 2006; Zarrett & Eccles, 2006). Therefore, the transition to adulthood is a very busy and turbulent period in the lives of most people, and potentially crucial when it comes to promoting “sports for all” and a “lifelong sport participation”. Policy makers and sport providers and their initiatives tend to overlook the (young) adults, as they mostly focus on groups that traditionally lagged in sport participation, such as the disabled, children in poverty and the elderly (Hoekman, 2018; Hoekman & Breedveld, 2013). The empirical studies in this dissertation investigating changes and differences in sport participation over the life course, in particular in relation to the occurrence of major life events and especially during the transition to adulthood, may expand knowledge needed to target and encourage people to get and stay involved in sport and sustain sport participation over the course of their lives. First, I examine whether four major life events marking the transition to adulthood (beginning to work, moving out to live on one’s own, starting to cohabit or getting married and the birth of one’s first child) and two events that occur later in life (children leaving the parental home and retirement) affect the likelihood of starting a sport over the life course (chapter 2). Second, I investigate if young adults are more or less likely to stop practising a sport when they begin to work, move out to live on their own, start to cohabit or get married and become a parent (chapter 3). In both studies, I research starting/stopping a sport in general, as well as starting/stopping a club sport in particular. Third, I study if leaving fulltime education, beginning to work, engaging in a relationship, cohabitation or marriage, and becoming a parent affect the number of sports practised by individuals, their sport frequency, and the sport setting in which they practise sport (chapter 4). Finally, I investigate why and how people change their sport participation when major life events occur that mark the transition to adulthood within two life domains: the professional career and the family domain (chapter 5).
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