"Retrospective survey of youth sports participation: Development and assessment of reliability using school records" by Reuben A. Buford May, alongside other authors

May, Reuben A. Buford
Reuben A Buford May

Reuben A. Buford May has been working alongside statisticians out of University of Pennsylvania on topics in sport. They recently published an article titled "Retrospective survey of youth sports participation: Development and assessment of reliability using school records." The article is focused on methods for assessing retrospective self-reports of sport participation. For the full article click here.

Abstract: "Many youths participate in sports, and it is of interest to understand the impact of youth sports participation on later-life outcomes. However, prospective studies take a long time to complete and retrospective studies may be more practical and time-efficient to address some questions. We pilot a retrospective survey of youth sports participation and examine agreement between respondent’s self-reported participation with high school records in a sample of 84 adults who graduated from high school between 1948 and 2018. The percent agreement between our survey and the school resources for individual sports ranged between 91.5% and 100%. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the reliability of retrospective self-report of youth sports participation. This survey may serve as an efficient approach for evaluating relationships between involvement in youth sports and health outcomes later in adulthood."