Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science- Social Policy and Public Health, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Centre, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Int J Equity Health. 2024 Oct 21;23(1):218. doi: 10.1186/s12939-024-02303-3.
Educational inequalities in sports participation remain a public health issue in the Netherlands. Combining structurally based resources from Pierre Bourdieu's theory of capital with Amartya Sen's conceptualization of individual agency may offer new insights into the complex mechanisms that drive these inequalities. Specifically, we posited that the way individuals are able to exercise their agency within the structurally based economic, social, and cultural resources they have access to may help explain educational inequalities in sports participation.Data from two waves of the GLOBE study (2014, 2021) were used to test whether two sequential mediators, structurally based resources followed by individual agency, help explain the relationship between educational level and sports participation. Adults aged 25 and older residing in Eindhoven, the Netherlands self-reported highest attained educational level, structurally based resources (economic, social, and embodied cultural capital), individual agency (self-control, perceived choice, and reflexivity), and sports participation. A sequential mediation analysis using structural equation modelling was used to test the direct effect of education on sports participation, the sequential indirect effect through both mediators, and partial indirect effects through each mediator individually.Educational level was positively associated with sports participation. The hypothesized sequential mediation pathway was not supported; educational level was positively associated with structurally based resources and structurally based resources were positively associated with individual agency, but individual agency was not related to sports participation. Though not through individual agency, structurally based resources helped explain educational inequalities in sports participation.Having access to more economic, social, and cultural resources may empower individuals by increasing their agency. This increased agency was not associated with sports participation, which could be because sports participation is not universally valued as a goal. The conceptualization and operationalization of individual agency in the context of sports participation warrants more research. We found that structurally based resources helped explain a substantial portion of educational inequalities in sport, so we propose that policies alleviating more than just economic barriers to sports participation, but also social and cultural barriers, may help reduce educational inequalities in sports participation in the Netherlands.
在荷兰，体育参与方面的教育不平等仍然是一个公共卫生问题。结合皮埃尔·布迪厄（Pierre Bourdieu）资本理论中的结构性资源和阿玛蒂亚·森（Amartya Sen）对个人能动性的概念化，可能为深入了解推动这些不平等的复杂机制提供新的视角。具体而言，我们假设个体在其可获得的结构性经济、社会和文化资源中行使能动性的方式，可能有助于解释体育参与方面的教育不平等。GLOBE 研究（2014 年和 2021 年）的两波数据被用于检验两个连续的中介变量，即结构性资源和个人能动性，是否有助于解释教育水平与体育参与之间的关系。居住在荷兰埃因霍温的 25 岁及以上成年人自我报告了最高学历、结构性资源（经济、社会和身体文化资本）、个人能动性（自我控制、感知选择和反思性）和体育参与情况。使用结构方程模型的序列中介分析用于检验教育水平对体育参与的直接影响、通过两个中介变量的顺序间接影响，以及通过每个中介变量的部分间接影响。教育水平与体育参与呈正相关。假设的序列中介途径没有得到支持；教育水平与结构性资源呈正相关，结构性资源与个人能动性呈正相关，但个人能动性与体育参与无关。虽然不是通过个人能动性，但结构性资源有助于解释体育参与方面的教育不平等。获得更多的经济、社会和文化资源可能通过增强个体的能动性来赋予他们权力。这种能动性的增强与体育参与无关，这可能是因为体育参与并不普遍被视为一个目标。在体育参与的背景下，对个人能动性的概念化和操作化值得进一步研究。我们发现，结构性资源有助于解释体育参与方面教育不平等的很大一部分，因此我们提出，缓解体育参与的不仅仅是经济障碍，还有社会和文化障碍的政策，可能有助于减少荷兰体育参与方面的教育不平等。
