70% of kids drop out of sports by 13? Why the ubiquitous stat is wrong
Attrition from kids sports is very real, but here are ways parents can concentrate our focus on the issue with a fresh perspective.
What’s behind a statistic? Think of the most common stats you know, depending on your interests and expertise. If you follow youth sports, it’s probably this one: 70% of kids drop out before the age of 13.
It turns out the statistic is inaccurate, and completely outdated. How outdated? Thanks to the research and analysis of Marty Fox of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society program, and Joseph Janosky of Lasell University, it traces back nearly four decades .
“One of the most repeated statistics in youth sports may not have a clear primary source. And that should stop us in our tracks,” Janosky, a Boston-based professor, scientist and researcher who examines athletes’ health, wrote in a recent LinkedIn post . “What I found instead was a chain of secondary sources.
Each one pointing to another. None clearly anchored to a transparent, verifiable study. “There’s a term for this: Citation drift.
Continue to the original source for the full article.