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This study provided a description of the extent, context, and timing of withdrawal from youth competitive sports and addressed the sport-specific vs. permanent dropout question. Grade 10 students (N = 1387) completed a sport participation profile retrospective to Grade I and a withdrawal questionnaire for all sports dropped Ninety-four percent had withdrawn from at least one sport. Withdrawals increased with grade level. Of the dropouts, 70% continued competing in one or more sports. A sub-sample of Grade 7-8 responses revealed that 55% began at least one new sport after withdrawal (transfers). The most important reason for withdrawal was "lack of enjoyment ", followed by "other non-sport activities" and "other sports". Significant differences were found in withdrawal reasons among dropout types, program types, grade levels and between genders.
Although considerable cross-sectional research on withdrawal from children's and youths' competitive sport programs has been conducted, longitudinal studies are needed (Ewing & Seefeldt, 1996; Petlichkoff, 1996; Roberts & Treasure, 1992; Weiss & Petlichkoff, 1989). However, these are difficult to realize. A retrospective design is an acceptable alternative (Aaron et al., 1995; Durante & Ainsworth, 1996). Using such a design, a detailed analysis of withdrawal patterns from competitive youth sport within the context of simultaneous and subsequent sport participation over a ten-year period was undertaken in the current study, and reasons for withdrawal from youth sport were examined. Ewing and Seefeldt (1996) note that in investigations of sport withdrawal often little is known about the details of the sports dropped, such as level and length of participation and number of simultaneous sports, The sport participation profile in the present research provided the context for each dropped sport, namely the sequence of sports, the length of participation in the dropped sport, other sports the respondents participated in at the time of withdrawal, and subsequent sports, after dropping out. As a result, a detailed picture of withdrawal patterns was obtained, not just information on a particular sport that was dropped in isolation from other sports.
Participants who had dropped a sport were identified using the dropout classification system outlined by Lindner, Johns and Butcher (1991) that recognizes four dropout types (sampler, low level participant, high level participant, and elite) based on length of time in the sport, competitive level, and...