RESUMEN

The majority of research participants in the social sciences are recruited from populations that are Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. This has the potential to threaten the external validity and limit the generalizability of research findings. It also highlights the need to provide a historical accounting of participant characteristics and reporting practices across coherent disciplines of research. This paper reports the participant characteristics from studies published in 12 leading journals in the sport and exercise psychology literature. In total, 15,650 peer-reviewed articles were published across these outlets from 1930 to 2021, involving 4,487,437 human participants. A descriptive overview of participant characteristics and reporting practices suggests that empirical understanding of human experiences and outcomes in sport and exercise settings is built from an incomplete and unrepresentative sample of participants. Findings illuminate potential knowledge gaps that may have resulted from the lack of diverse samples and offer potential paths forward for contemporary sport and exercise psychology scholars who wish to address these gaps.

Asunto(s)

Aprendizaje , Deportes , Humanos , Ejercicio Físico , Ciencias Sociales , Conocimiento

RESUMEN

Developmentally appropriate sport contexts have the potential to positively influence young people's physiological, psychological, and social outcomes. However, little is known about how families returned to sport in the wake of COVID-19-related restrictions or how socioeconomic and demographic factors influenced parents' perceptions of barriers to returning. A nationally representative sample (N = 6183) of American youth sport parents completed a questionnaire in which they provided demographic information and answered questions related to the barriers they perceived in returning to sport, such as the risk of their child getting sick. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among a range of socioeconomic and demographic factors and these barriers to returning. Results suggest that parents from racially minoritized and urban neighborhoods held higher levels of concern over health-related and practical barriers to returning to sport. Findings highlight the importance of designing available, equitable, and appropriate youth sport contexts.