2 | 67 A new life stage, a new sport activity? investigated, however, we do not expect any large discrepancies. Moreover, by taking into account anticipation and knock-on effects, we likely overcame this problem to a substantial degree. Recall error among respondents was probably more prevalent in their reports of sport participation. But such recall error would reduce the chance of our hypotheses being confirmed (i.e., producing a smaller likelihood of a match between a life event and starting a sport), so this would actually generate a fairly strict test of our expectations. Second, our lack of dynamic data on respondents’ temporal and social resources should be noted. In our case, temporal and social resources were derived via expectations formulated in connection with the six major life events. However, more direct measures of time availability and social network would, of course, be preferable, though such measurements are very difficult due to the potential for recall error. In any case, it would likely lead to more recall error than the recall of major life events. The data limited our research in another way as well: we were unable to include non-sport participants in our research, as no information was gathered on this group. The absence of this group could have affected our results, as they would have reduced the overall odds of starting a sport. Regarding additional research, further study is recommended regarding the relationship between starting as well as stopping a sport, in the various organisational forms, in connection with the major life events. Beyond analysis of significant influences of major life events on sport participation, other relevant aspects merit study, such as the reasons that people themselves give for starting or stopping a sport (e.g., time constraints, social contacts) and perceptions connected with changes in the social significance of sport. Conclusion Thedetailed informationprovidedby theSportersMonitor2010onrespondents’ lives enabled us to study sport activity from a life-course perspective. In that regard, the current study adds a new dimension to the existing literature on explaining sport behaviour. Considering the objectives typically associated with “sport for all” policy, increased understanding of the stimuli and constraints people experience to start or continue sport participation over the life course will remain a research area of key interest. The results of our study suggest that major life events relate to changes in sport participation, both in general and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw