The Rise of Private Club and Travel Teams in the U.S.: Generational changes in youth sports participation and associations with socioeconomic statuses and family and community sport cultures

Using descriptive and binary logistic regression analyses of data from the National Sports andSociety Survey (N = 3,993), this study assessed trends in private club and travel sportsparticipation over the past 60 years, according to U.S. adults’ retrospective reports of theirexperiences while growing up. Results indicated an increase, across generations, of ever havingparticipated in private club or travel sports, a pre-teen competitive league like travel/club, and acompetitive league like travel/club for elite teen athletes. Family socioeconomic statuses andfamily and community sport cultures consistently predicted the likelihood that adults reportedever having participated in these types of sports offerings. Family socioeconomic statusesbecome more meaningful in distinguishing participation rates among the youngest generations.These findings offer valuable new evidence of the rise and extent of private club and travelsports participation over recent decades and highlight how generational contexts, familysocioeconomic statuses, and family and community sport cultures have shaped children’s youthsports experiences, especially as they relate to private club and travel sports, over the years.