Youth
Youth 15-17 years
Less than a quarter of 15 to 17 year olds are sufficiently active during this critical life stage. Sports can help turn this around by better understanding and adapting to the changing needs of this segment.
Life-stages-snapshot_15-17-years.pdf
Insights to help attract and retain:
Active 15-17 year olds
These teenagers love being active.
They don’t just meet the guidelines, on average, they smash them! More than a session a day and 3.5 different activities means the enjoyment they get from sport and physical activity has them trying new things and socialising through sport.
171,000 people21% of 15-17 year olds
10 Average number of sessions per week
3.5 Average number of different activities
Characteristics
- Enjoy being a valued member of a team
- Want to improve health, fitness, wellbeing, and mental health
- Enjoy spending time with friends and doing a fun activity
- Find challenges and rewards appealing
- Like trying new things.
While they love their sports, 15 to 17 year olds stay involved because it is fun and social. Too much focus on performance and training requirements might see their passion for sport decrease.
Insights to help retain participants and keep people active
Insufficiently active 15-17 year olds
These teenagers are a bit more ambivalent toward sport and physical activity.
They participate, but they are only active every second day. A bad experience is likely to put this cohort off doing more because they have less confidence in their ability.
606,000 people74% of 15-17 year olds
3.4 Average number of sessions per week
2.3 Average number of different activities
Characteristics
- Fear being judged and are put off by team selection processes
- Lack fitness and skills and worry they can't keep up
- Find that sport causes mental stress and adds pressure
- Put off by the involvement of other parents i.e. favouritism
- Increasing time commitments, including work, study, family, friends and new interests
- Decreasing levels of support from parents who value other commitments over sport e.g. study.
Addressing these concerns when organising sport experiences will give more teenagers the opportunity to play, as it will match the experience they want at this stage of their life.
Insights to help acquire and retain participants and get people more active
Inactive 15-17 year olds
Inactive populations are not playing sport or staying physically active.
Their interest in getting more active is low and they often identify significant barriers to getting active.
42,000 people5% of 15-17 year olds
Characteristics
- Don't like sport or physical activity
- Poor previous experiences with sport
- Lack of fitness and skills.
Insights to help understand the barriers to participation for inactive people
Featured resource
Learn more about the attitudes and motivations to sport and physical activity for this age group through:
The life stages resource uses 2019 data from AusPlay; the Australian sport and physical activity participation survey.