%0 Journal Article
%T Social class and the emergent organised sporting habits of primary
%A Ken Green
%A Miranda Thurston
%A Sharon Wheeler
%J European Physical Education Review
%@ 1741-2749
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1356336X17706092
%X This paper reports on the patterns of participation in organised sports of youngsters coming towards the end of primary school, with a view to identifying emergent sporting habits in relation to social class gradients. The data for the study were generated via 90 semi-structured interviews with parents and children from 62 families. The data revealed differences in organised activity participation (both at and beyond school) between an ¡®under-class¡¯ and combined middle-class groups of children, as well as within-class gradients among the middle-class sub-groups. There were, for example, substantial differences between the under-class group and the combined middle-class group in terms of both the average number of bouts of organised sports participation and the repertoire or variety of sports engaged with. In effect, the mid- and upper-middle-class children were already sporting and cultural omnivores by the final years of primary schooling. We conclude that while the primary school organised sporting ¡®offer¡¯ may be neither a sufficient nor even a necessary contribution to the emerging sporting habits of mid- and upper-middle-class children, for under-class children it is likely to be necessary even though it may still prove, in the longer run, insufficient
%K Children
%K primary school
%K organised sports
%K habits
%K class
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1356336X17706092