Loneliness and regular sports participation among people of Turkish and Moroccan origin and native Dutch people in the Netherlands. A longitudinal study.

Objective: Sports participation is lower in people of Turkish and Moroccan origin in the Netherlands than in native Dutch people. Addressing this inequality calls for better insights into antecedents of sports participation in different ethnic groups. Theorists suggested that loneliness may hamper sports participation, and levels of loneliness are high among people of Turkish and Moroccan origin. This study assessed the longitudinal association between loneliness and regular sports participation among Turkish origin, Moroccan origin and native Dutch people.
Methods: Data are from Turkish origin (n = 394), Moroccan origin (n = 387) and native Dutch (n = 1663) people who participated in Wave 1 (2008-2010) and Wave 2 (2013) of the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study. Regular sports participation at follow-up was regressed on loneliness at baseline in logistic regression models adjusted for baseline sports participation and a range of confounders. Models were stratified by ethnic group.
Results: Turkish and Moroccan origin people had lower rates of regular sports participation and higher levels of loneliness than native Dutch people. Loneliness at baseline was negatively associated with sports participation at follow-up for people of Turkish and Moroccan origin. No evidence of a longitudinal association between loneliness and sports participation among native Dutch people was found.
Conclusions: The demonstrated positive longitudinal association between loneliness and regular sports participation in people of Turkish and Moroccan origin potentially opens new ways to encourage physical activity in these groups. An integrated approach to addressing loneliness and physical inactivity among people with a non-western migration background may benefit the realization of both goals.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)