5 | 145 Career, family, and sport participation: a simultaneous exhibition? over sport participation, because – as outlined in the elaboration of the first emergent theme - they are to a high degree obligatory, to a large extend bound to a fixed time and/or location, often dependent on others and have a high social value or payoff. This, together with the extra time and sometimes financial constraints involved, makes it more and more challenging to (re)start or sustain sport participation during the transition to adulthood. As expressed by some participants: “Ehh ... at a certain point I started studying from the age of 18 and then you set some other priorities, at least I did, some other priorities in my life. Which made sport less important for me.” (Fabiënne) “I was trying to find a balance between uhm working and continuing to practise sport, but uh working played the lead role.” (Lisanne) “First comes my family, then comes work, then comes sport. So, I’ve deliberately put practising sport on the back burner.” (Mark) Although sport participation was deprioritised in general as a result of experiencing major life events, the narratives show diversity in the choices that participants made regarding whether or not to (re)start or continue to practise sport and ways to do so, after becoming a student, professional, partner and/or parent. These choices were based on different considerations and evaluations of the perceived changes in resources and associated opportunities and constraints for practising sport. The narratives teach us that the choice to practise sport during the transition to adulthood largely depended on the participants’ willingness to structurally incorporate sport activities in their new life situations, and on if they saw a way to do so. In many cases, both the will and the way to practise sport during the transition to adulthood seemed affected by major life events that mark this transition. In the following sections, we dive more deeply into the specific patterns regarding the willingness to participate in sport and the ways found to do so. The willingness to participate in sport during the transition to adulthood The will to (re)start or sustain sport participation when major life events
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