Families, Pre-School Sport, and Physical Activity

Georgia Allen-Baker is an Assistant Professor at Northumbria University, UK. Her research draws on psychological and sociological theory to understand individual and collective experiences in sport and physical activity domains. Recently, she has focused on parental motivations, family experiences, and societal implications of early sport engagement.Philippa Velija is Interim Dean of School of Education at the University of Roehampton, London, UK. She is co-author of Gender Equity in UK Sport Leadership and Governance and Figurational Research in Sport, Leisure, and Health. Philippa is interested in understanding the socio-cultural study of inequalities in sport and leisure.

• Introduction, Part One: Theoretical Concepts, One: Sociological Frameworks for Understanding Unequal Childhoods and Pre-School Spaces, Two: A figurational analysis of the growth of commercialised sports for under five-year-olds, Three: Framing Play: Bernstein, Early Years Education and Pre-School Enrichment, Four: Pre-School Children, Risky Play and Rock-Climbing Programmes, Part Two: UK Empirical Studies, Five: Marketing Pre-School Sport and Physical Activity, Six: A Race to the Bottom: The recruitment of pre-academy children into Premier League football academies, Seven: Swimming from Birth , Eight: Forest School in the Early Years, Part Three: Global Context, Nine: Advancing an understanding about parenting and children’s early sport involvement: An Australian perspective, Ten: Race, Families and Pre-School Sport and Physical Activity of Pacific families in Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand, Eleven: An Analysis of the Pre-school Sport and Physical Activity Market in Sweden, Twelve: Exploring pre-school sport and physical activity in China: A critical perspective on parents and under-fives, Thirteen: Organised Public Sports Participation Among Preschoolers Living in the U.S. Southeast: Strategies and Challenges