Stability of context in sport and exercise across educational transitions in adolescence: hello work, goodbye sport club?

BACKGROUND: The present study firstly aimed to identify context patterns in sport and exercise among adolescents at lower and upper secondary education. The organisational, social and competitive contexts of leisure-time sport and exercise were included as pattern indicators. The second aim was to examine the stability of these patterns across educational transition. The last aim was to investigate whether a subjective evaluation of the transition influences whether people stay in the same pattern across time. METHODS: One-year longitudinal data of 392 adolescents were analysed. RESULTS: Both before and after the educational transition, four context patterns were identified: the traditional competitive club athletes with friends, the self-organised individualists, the non-club-organised sportspersons and the mostly inactives. More than half of the individuals stayed in the same pattern across time. When individuals changed pattern, their change was most often from the self-organised individualists and the non-club-organised to the mostly inactives. A subjective evaluation of the transition influenced the stability of only the traditional competitive club athletes with friends. The chance of these people staying in the same pattern decreased with increased transitional stress. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about the stability and change of context patterns can be used to make recommendations for policy strategies and to develop more individually-tailored promotion programs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-12471-4.