24 | Chapter 1 EMPIRICAL STUDIES The following chapters of this dissertation present four empirical studies, each contributing to a better understanding of the impact of major life events on sport participation during the life course, especially during the transition to adulthood. As such, these chapters can be read as standalone articles. This does mean that there is some overlap in the presentation of the theoretical starting point, and similar major life events are investigated. However, not every empirical chapter covers exactly the same life events, due to employing different data sets and methods, and differences in the scope of the studies (in particular, chapter two has a wider scope compared to the other empirical chapters). Table 1.2 presents an overview of the data and method used in every empirical chapter, as well as the life events and sport participation aspects under investigation. A new stage of life, a new sport activity? Event history analyses of the impact of major life events on starting a sport (chapter 2) Chapter two is the first empirical chapter and examines if beginning to work, moving out to live on one’s own, starting to cohabit or getting married, the birth of one’s first child, children leaving the parental home and retirement play a role in picking up new sport activities and the organisational form of the chosen sport activity. The central research question is as follows: to what extent are starting a sport in general and starting a competitive club sport affected by major life events? To understand how major life events relate to sport participation, I employ a resource perspective considering that life events lead to increased or decreased resources and constraints to practise sport. I describe, in detail, a theoretical rationale regarding time constraints and social resources to explain how the six major life events under investigation could help or hinder starting a sport in general and starting a competitive club sport in particular. To test the hypotheses deduced from this theoretical framework, I use retrospective life-course data on 2707 adults from the Dutch Sporters Monitor 2010 of the Mulier Institute and NOC*NSF, which traced sport careers and additionally offers information regarding the age at which the six major life events occurred. Event history analysis shows that the odds of starting a new sport increased when people started a paid job, moved out to live on their own,
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