The effects of capital and gender on German adolescents’ favourite sports

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of different types of capital and gender on the choice of German adolescents' favourite sports. According to Bourdieu's theoretical framework, cultural, social, and economic capital as well as gender are expected to influence this choice because of individuals' habitus. Data from several waves (2000-2018) of the youth questionnaire of the German Socio-Economic Panel (n=4518) are used to discover the eleven most favoured sports by adolescents at the age of 16 and 17 years. Embodied cultural and social capital of adolescents and their parents is measured by different leisure activities, while economic capital is captured by a person's net equivalent income. The educational status as a measure of institutionalised cultural capital positively influences the likelihood of choosing volleyball, handball, or riding as a favourite sport. The likelihood of favouring football, handball, and riding is negatively affected by embodied cultural capital. Only a few sports are determined by parents' cultural capital. The results show that the most frequent determinant for choosing a favourite sport is gender; it is significant in nine out of eleven sports.