Examining adolescent football dropout in the Czech Republic

Background: Increases in early sport specialization, professionalization of youth sports, and leisure opportunities have led to growing numbers of youth dropping out of competitive sport. Understanding youth sport motivation and reasons for dropout is essential to crafting national federation policy, finance, and strategy decisions, as well as for clubs in aiding youth to reach their maximum potential. Objective: The study explored the leisure constraints perceived by former Czech youth football players as their main reasons for dropout. Based on leisure constraints theory, the hierarchical relationship between structural, intrapersonal, and interpersonal constraints was analyzed. Methods: A modified Czech version of Gould et al.’s Questionnaire of Reasons for Attrition (1982) was used to survey former Czech football players who dropped out between the ages of 13 and 18 years old. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to determine the relative prevalence of, and hierarchical relationship between, leisure constraints. Results: The participants’ reasons for attrition were grouped into six factors corresponding to intrapersonal constraints (Low interest, Perceived low skills), interpersonal constraints (Team climate and the coach, Peer relationships) and structural constraints (Lacking family resources, External costs/low rewards). The participants most frequently reported interpersonal constraints (Team climate and the coach) and intrapersonal constraints (Low interest and Perceived low skills). Peer relationships significantly predicted intrapersonal constraints, including Perceived low skills (β = .482, p = .050) and Low interest (β = .914, p = .013); and Team climate and the coach significantly predicted Perceived low skills (β = .245, p = .036). Conclusions: Our results emphasize the importance of intrapersonal constraints and interpersonal constraints related to the team climate as the most significant reasons for dropout in Czech youth football. Based on these findings, we conclude that the coach, including coaching education, is the best place for the federation and clubs to address attrition in Czech football.