On Thin Ice: Examining Youth Hockey Participation in Canada

Abstract

Picture your local community, and chances are you will see two things: a hockey arena and an outdoor rink. Many Canadian children of all backgrounds play hockey. It is the quintessential Canadian sport, and yet previous literature suggests that fewer Canadian boys are playing hockey now, while more girls are playing hockey than ever before. If the boys aren’t playing hockey, what are they playing, if they do play sports? What might affect these participation rates? Is class an issue? Are youth sports simply becoming too expensive for the average Canadian family? My research addresses these questions. Using Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey from 1998 and 2010, this honours thesis examines how youth sports participation may have changed over time by gender, age, and social class. I focus on hockey participation specifically; however, in order to see how hockey participation may have changed with regard to the various factors mentioned above, I examine youth participation rates for the four other most popular sports played by Canadian children in 2010. None of the previous literature I examined compared variances in hockey participation to variances in other sports. By creating this comparison cross sectional analysis, my honours thesis creates a more complete analysis of the Canadian youth sports landscape.