Closing the Gender Play Gap: A Qualitative Exploration on Female Adolescent Sport Participation, Dropout, and Re-Engagement

Objectives: This study explores the phenomena of female adolescent dropout and re-engagement in organised sport, and assesses reasons for dropout, reasons for continuation, and importantly, potentially effective re-
engagement strategies for this cohort.
Methods: Focus groups and individual interviews are utilised to gain
perspectives from three distinct stakeholder groups: adolescent females
(continuers and discontinuers), adults actively involved in female adolescent
sport, and state government staff responsible for the administration of
government funded youth sport initiatives and dissemination of grant
funding.
Findings and Discussion: This study uncovers a nuanced understanding of
the factors contributing to the gender gap in adolescent sport participation.
Findings are assessed through the conceptual framework of the Youth Sport
System (Dorsch et al., 2022), and a critical realist philosophical underpinning
is adopted. Congruence or divergence between the experiences and
attitudes described by each participant group further our understanding of
whether there is alignment between what female adolescents want from
their sporting experience, and what staff, officials, coaches, and other adult
figures are providing, or striving to provide.
Conclusions: By synthesising these diverse viewpoints, the paper will
contribute to a comprehensive underpinning for the development of targeted
interventions aimed at reigniting interest and participation among female
adolescents in organised sport and re-engaging the dis-engaged. The
findings contribute to the broader discourse on gender equity in youth sport
engagement, and will offer practical implications for policymakers, sports
administrators, educators, and researchers.