Exploring the relationship between socioeconomic status and sport participation in Maltese children: A cross-sectional short survey of mothers in relatively affluent households

Öz

The study aimed to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status and sport participation as a component of broader physical activity patterns in Maltese children. In light of generally low physical activity levels and high prevalence of adverse health outcomes like overweight and obesity in Malta by international standards, researchers and stakeholders have been keen to identify key operative factors and remedial long-term solutions. Trends towards low activity rates may also help to explain relative under-performance by Maltese athletes in international sports. With an interest in both sports performance and national health, therefore, a cross-sectional short survey was administered among a sample of mothers in relatively affluent Maltese households, to survey sports participation in their children as a function of household socioeconomic status, from a sociological perspective. A series of non-parametric statistical procedures were used to test a range of hypotheses that ultimately revealed significant effects of household income, parental educational level, and gender on children’s sports participation. Throughout the article, we develop the argument that small nations simply cannot afford application of further restrictions on the population pool from which potentially talented future sports performers may be drawn. More commitment is needed, in this sense, to concerted initiatives and policies designed to limit inequality of access to sport as a component of physical activity, along class, gender, or indeed any other lines.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Socioeconomic status
• sports participation
• physical activity
• children
• Malta
• Mediterranean

Kaynakça

1. Aquilina, S., Camilleri, E., Spiteri, K., Busuttil, M. L., Sant-Angelo, V. F., Calleja, N., & Grech, V. (2019). Regional differences in Childhood BMI data-The Malta Childhood National Body Mass Index Study. Malta Medical Journal, 31(3), 24-29.
2. Azevedo, L. M., Chiavegato, L. D., Carvalho, C. R., Braz, J. R., Nunes Cabral, C. M., & Padula, R. S. (2021). Are blue-collar workers more physically active than white-collar at work?. Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 76(6), 338-347.
3. Bhurosy, T., & Jeewon, R. (2014). Overweight and obesity epidemic in developing countries: a problem with diet, physical activity, or socioeconomic status? [online] The Scientific World Journal, 14(1).
4. Book Jr, R. T., Henriksen, K., Stambulova, N., & Storm, L. K. (2022). “All they have seen is a model for failure:” Stakeholder’s perspectives on athletic talent development in American underserved communities. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 34(6), 1037- 1057.
5. Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual review of psychology, 53(1), 371-399.
6. Brown, J. E., Broom, D. H., Nicholson, J. M., & Bittman, M. (2010). Do working mothers raise couch potato kids? Maternal employment and children's lifestyle behaviours and weight in early childhood. Social science & medicine, 70(11), 1816-1824.
7. Buehler, C., & O'Brien, M. (2011). Mothers' part-time employment: associations with mother and family well-being. Journal of family psychology, 25(6), 895.
8. Cairney, J., & Veldhuizen, S. (2017). Organized sport and physical activity participation and body mass index in children and youth: A longitudinal study. Preventive medicine reports, 6, 336-338.

9. Camilleri, N., Grech, A., & Taylor, R. (2010). Socio-economic status and population density risk factors for psychosis: prospective incidence study in the Maltese Islands. International Psychiatry, 7(3), 69-71.
10. Cauchi, D., Rutter, H., & Knai, C. (2015). An obesogenic island in the Mediterranean: mapping potential drivers of obesity in Malta. Public health nutrition, 18(17), 3211-3223.
11. Chen, E., Martin, A. D., & Matthews, K. A. (2006). Socioeconomic status and health: do gradients differ within childhood and adolescence?. Social science & medicine, 62(9), 2161-2170.
12. Collins, M. F., & Buller, J. R. (2003). Social exclusion from high-performance sport: Are all talented young sports people being given an equal opportunity of reaching the Olympic podium?. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 27(4), 420-442.
13. Currie, J., & Goodman, J. (2020). Parental socioeconomic status, child health, and human capital. In The economics of education (pp. 239-248). Academic Press.
14. Cuschieri, S., Vassallo, J., Calleja, N., Pace, N., & Mamo, J. (2017). The effects of socioeconomic determinants on hypertension in a cardiometabolic at-risk European country. International journal of hypertension, 2017.
15. Cuschieri, S. (2020). The characteristics of an obesogenic small European country: results from a Malta cross-sectional study. Perspectives in Public Health, 140(6), 327-337.
16. Decelis, A., Jago, R., & Fox, K. R. (2014). Physical activity, screen time and obesity status in a nationally representative sample of Maltese youth with international comparisons. BMC public health, 14(1), 1-11. EIGE (2020). Gender equality index: Malta. European Institute for Gender Equality [online]. Available at: https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-equality-index-2020-malta
17. Grech, A., Toering, T., & Collins, D. (2022). The fairy tale of Maltese professional sport: Exploring obstacles and hindrances in local elite sport development. MCAST Journal of Applied Research & Practice, 6(3), 53-72.
18. Grech, V., Aquilina, S., Camilleri, E., Spiteri, K., Busuttil, M. L., Sant’Angelo, V. F., & Calleja, N. (2017). The Malta childhood national body mass index study: a population study. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 65(3), 327-331.
19. Hanson, M. D., & Chen, E. (2007). Socioeconomic status and health behaviors in adolescence: a review of the literature. Journal of behavioral medicine, 30, 263-285.
20. Hemmingsson, E., & Ekelund, U. (2007). Is the association between physical activity and body mass index obesity dependent?. International journal of obesity, 31(4), 663-668.
21. Hills, A. P., Andersen, L. B., & Byrne, N. M. (2011). Physical activity and obesity in children. British journal of sports medicine, 45(11), 866-870.
22. Lee, J. E., Pope, Z., & Gao, Z. (2018). The role of youth sports in promoting children's physical activity and preventing pediatric obesity: a systematic review. Behavioral Medicine, 44(1), 62-76.
23. Li, C., Wang, C. J., & Pyun, D. Y. (2014). Talent development environmental factors in sport: A review and taxonomic classification. Quest, 66(4), 433-447.
24. Lioret, S., Maire, B., Volatier, J. L., & Charles, M. A. (2007). Child overweight in France and its relationship with physical activity, sedentary behaviour and socioeconomic status. European journal of clinical nutrition, 61(4), 509-516.
25. McGovern, J. (2021). The intersection of class, race, gender and generation in shaping Latinas’ sport experiences. Sociological Spectrum, 41(1), 96-114.
26. McVeigh, J. A., Norris, S. A., & De Wet, T. J. A. P. (2004). The relationship between socio‐economic status and physical activity patterns in South African children. Acta Paediatrica, 93(7), 982-988.
27. Muscat-Inglott, M. (2021). Curricular brood parasitism in Malta: An empirical study of vocational education and the reproduction of social inequality. The SOJO Journal: Educational Foundations and Social Justice Education, 7(2), 53-66.
28. Muscat-Inglott, M. & Vella White, C. (2021). Factors influencing Maltese international sports performance in the pan-European and microstate contexts: An empirical study. MCAST Journal of Applied Research & Practice, 5(2), 43-57.
29. NSO (2021). Regional statistics Malta 2021 edition – The Maltese National Statistics Office [online]. Available at: https://nso.gov.mt/en/nso/Media/Salient-Points-of- Publications/Pages/2021/Regional-Statistics-MALTA-2021-Edition.aspx
30. Pereira-da-Silva, L., Rêgo, C., & Pietrobelli, A. (2016). The diet of preschool children in the Mediterranean countries of the European Union: A systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 13(6), 572.
31. Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2014). Inequality in the long run. Science, 344(6186), 838-843.
32. Rauner, A., Mess, F., & Woll, A. (2013). The relationship between physical activity, physical fitness and overweight in adolescents: a systematic review of studies published in or after 2000. BMC pediatrics, 13, 1-9.
33. Rowley, S. R., & Graham, P. J. (1999). Intensive training in youth sport: An example of unequal opportunity. Children & society, 13(2), 119-129.
34. Sahoo, K., Sahoo, B., Choudhury, A. K., Sofi, N. Y., Kumar, R., & Bhadoria, A. S. (2015). Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 4(2), 187.
35. Salmon, J., Timperio, A., Cleland, V., & Venn, A. (2005). Trends in children's physical activity and weight status in high and low socio‐economic status areas of Melbourne, Victoria, 1985–2001. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 29(4), 337- 342.
36. SportMalta (2021). SportMalta launches #onthemove programme and #beactive campaign [online]. Available at: https://sportmalta.mt/sportmalta-launches-onthemove-programme- and-beactive-campaign/
37. Stalsberg, R., & Pedersen, A. V. (2010). Effects of socioeconomic status on the physical activity in adolescents: a systematic review of the evidence. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 20(3), 368-383.
38. Sulemana, H., Smolensky, M. H., & Lai, D. (2006). Relationship between physical activity and body mass index in adolescents. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(6), 1182-1186.
39. Tandon, P. S., Zhou, C., Sallis, J. F., Cain, K. L., Frank, L. D., & Saelens, B. E. (2012). Home environment relationships with children’s physical activity, sedentary time, and screen time by socioeconomic status. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 9(1), 1-9.
40. Vella, S. A., Cliff, D. P., Okely, A. D., Scully, M. L., & Morley, B. C. (2013). Associations between sports participation, adiposity and obesity-related health behaviors in Australian adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 10(1), 1- 9.
41. Wilson, D. K., Kirtland, K. A., Ainsworth, B. E., & Addy, C. L. (2004). Socioeconomic status and perceptions of access and safety for physical activity. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 28(1), 20-28.
42. Yang, X. L., Telama, R., & Laakso, L. (1996). Parents' physical activity, socioeconomic status and education as predictors of physical activity and sport among children and youths-A 12-year follow-up study. International review for the sociology of sport, 31(3), 273-291.
43. Zucman, G. (2019). Global wealth inequality. Annual Review of Economics, 11, 109-138.