Sport Ideal and Sport Involvement Among Adolescents

One of the many "taken-for-granted" assumptions that prevails within the realm of sport, states that top level athletes serve as ideals for children, and thus contributes to create and broaden the interest for sport among the younger generation. Top level athletes are thus assumed to play similar functions vis a vis youngsters' and their relations to sport as, for instance, certain pop stars are supposed to do as regards youngsters' relations to pop music. This report is going to deal with the mentioned "taken-for-granted" assumption and thus only touch a small part of the whole problem of adolescent sub-cultures, as we shall focus attention on some problems of sport ideal and sport involvement. More specifically the intention is, in the first place to look into the theoretical basis for making assumptions about sport ideals and their potential impact upon youngsters' involvement in sport, and, in the second place, to highlight on an empirical basis: — The extent to which male and female youngsters of different age choose a sport ideal, — to what extent male and female athletes are chosen as ideals, — which sport branches are represented in the choices, and — the relationship between having a sport ideal and (a) the youngsters' involvement in sport and (b) their social background.