Sport activities are an important leisure activity for adolescents, yet their role in relation to social behaviour is often studied in an simplified way. The purpose of this master's thesis was to use a combined quantitative and qualitative approach to investigate how different aspects of sport participation relate to psychosocial adjustment and social status in the classroom, and how adolescents perceive the meaning of sport participation. The study included nine primary schools from three Slovenian statistical regions, with 309 upper primary school adolescents and 239 parents or guardians participating. Adolescents completed the Sport Participation Questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a sociometric assessment, and answered two open questions on the advantages and disadvantages of sport participation. The results show that the role of sport participation depends on specific aspects of the activity. In the overall sample, the number of sports and total participation frequency were associated with internalising behaviours and emotional problems, while competition level was associated with peer problems. In the subsample with defined social status within the peer group, type of activity (team or individual sport) predicted social influence and measures of psychosocial adjustment. In the qualitative part, adolescents reported physical, emotional, social, behavioural, motivational, and organisational and other advantages and disadvantages of participation. The findings contribute to understanding the complexity of the role of sport participation in early adolescence and highlight the importance of distinguishing between specific aspects of participation in future research.
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