'Sacrifice and compromise': the lived experiences of regional adolescent girls in regional Victoria, Australia who have dropped out of organised sport

Recent research has demonstrated that the rate of dropout from sport by adolescent girls throughout regional Australia continues to increase. In response to this phenomenon and to the nature of the research into it, this study investigated the lived experiences of 12 female participants from a regional Australian area who had dropped out of sport during their adolescent years. More specifically the studies main research question was “What are the lived experiences of regional adolescent girls in relation to their participation in and dropout from sport? The study had two sub-research questions attached to it that asked: “How do adolescent girls explain the reasons for their dropout from sport?” and “What can be learnt from the lived experiences of the adolescent girls who have dropped out of sport to make a difference toward decreasing its prevalence? The study was framed conceptually by a synthesis of interpretative and hermeneutic phenomenology and Bronfenbrenner's ecological development theory, drawn from interpretivist philosophy. Adopting a methodological approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study used focus groups and individual interviews with 12 participants to collect data. The data analysis process followed a spiral process that enabled the revisiting of steps in the process to ensure the rigour of the data and the process itself. These themes indicated that the dropout from sport by adolescent girls is individualised depending upon the individual girl concerned, and it is complex for girls more generally. It involves negative influence from peers, families, coaches, sporting clubs and the media, all of whom influence the girls’ decision to dropout from sport. The study demonstrates that the participants were required to make undue compromise and to deal with unwanted pressures via individual, community and situational means. Pressures from these were shown to often result in the adolescent girls premature dropout from sport. In order to address these concerns, the study recommends that a combination of institutional, educational and structural changes in sport, education and the media are required to deal with the phenomenon of adolescent girls’ dropout from sport. More broadly, the study contributes to practice-related, methodological, theoretical and policy knowledge pertaining to this phenomenon