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The Closer the Sportier? Children's Sports Activity and Their Distance to Sports Facilities

Andreas Steinmayr, Christina Felfe and Michael Lechner

European Review of Aging and Physical Activity, 2011, 8(2): 67–82

Article (PDF)
Line chart: share of children active in sports clubs by distance to the nearest gym and sports ground.
Participation in sports clubs by distance to the nearest sports facilities (Figure 2, left panel). Steinmayr, Felfe and Lechner (2011), European Review of Aging and Physical Activity, Figure 2. CC BY 2.0.

Abstract

We investigate whether the distance between the next sports facilities and children’s homes matter for their sports activities inside and outside of sports clubs. Our analysis is based on a large and informative cross-section of individual data on children and their families, the so-called German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents data. We use a semiparametric econometric method to investigate this relationship empirically. Our results suggest that while the distance does not matter in larger towns and cities, it does matter in smaller towns and in particular on the countryside.

Cite (BibTeX)
@article{Steinmayr2011closer,
  author      = {Steinmayr, Andreas and Felfe, Christina and Lechner, Michael},
  title       = {{The Closer the Sportier? Children's Sports Activity and Their Distance to Sports Facilities}},
  journal     = {European Review of Aging and Physical Activity},
  year        = {2011},
  volume      = {8},
  number      = {2},
  pages       = {67--82},
  doi         = {10.1007/s11556-011-0090-0}
}

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