Young people sport less when they get their first job, but social support helps

Every year, around 90,000 young people make the transition from school to work. A large number of them start to participate in sports less during this transition. This is worrying, because those who participate less in sports usually do not pick it up again automatically. However, an activating social and work environment can restimulate participation in sports, according to research by sociologist Sara Wiertsema. Wiertsema’s PhD defense is May 28 at Radboud University.

Your first job is a milestone that also brings about quite a few changes in terms of sports. “Compared to school pupils and students, working young adults exercise less and are more likely to choose individual sports over team sports,” explains Wiertsema. The sociologist investigated the role of the workplace in this decline. To this end, she used various questionnaires completed by thousands of young adults in the Netherlands and Europe. They were asked about their sporting activities, the physical and mental demands of their first job, and their social life, among other things. 

Wiertsema: “A new routine with a stricter schedule, fixed working hours and work stress all determine whether you feel like and have time to continue exercising. The study clearly shows that young adults adapt their sporting behaviour to their new working life.”

Keep your brain and body fit

The type of work this group does can determine how active young adults remain. “If you have a job that involves a lot of cognitive demands, you want to use your body after a long day of working with your mind. This group exercises and plays sports relatively more. However, this can also backfire: some of this group prefer to stay at home because of the stress they experience from the mental pressure of work, and are more likely to take up unhealthy activities such as smoking, drinking or unhealthy eating, according to previous research.”

The freedom to organise your own day is also important, Wiertsema states. “If you have to be at the office from 9 to 5, five days a week, you have little autonomy over your working hours. But if you can sometimes work from home, or come to the office an hour later, or decide for yourself in which order you carry out your work tasks, you experience more freedom and therefore also the space to go for a walk in between or visit the gym in the morning.”

Support from your environment is important

Young adults who did continue to exercise often did so because they received social support from their environment, for example in the form of encouragement or offers to exercise together. Wiertsema discovered that colleagues can also play an important role in this.
“It helps enormously if you have sporty colleagues who encourage each other. Going to the gym with your colleagues after work, or having an office group that regularly encourages each other to cycle or run, limits the decline in physical activity among young working adults. The more physical activity and encouragement you get from your social circle, the more likely you are to maintain your exercise habits.”