The Relationship between Sport Participation and Sense of Belonging: The Case of Multicultural Children in South Korea

Abstract

Sport is widely understood as a tool for social inclusion. However, there has been insufficient study on the value of sport participation towards social inclusion of the multicultural population in the context of Korea. This study examines the relationship between sport participation and sense of belonging among multicultural children in South Korea in order to assess the role of sport as a tool for social inclusion. 240 multicultural children who are presently attending public elementary schools were recruited as study participants, with each of them filling out self-report questionnaires on sport participation and their perceived sense of belonging. The data collected from the questionnaire survey were analyzed using ANCOVA from the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Four covariates, including gender, age, residence period, and family category, were controlled for while examining the relationship between 9 independent variables of sport participation and 3 dependent variables of sense of belonging. The results of the study indicate that the independent variables that have a positive impact on a sense of school, community, and national belonging are the frequency of participant sport, frequency and duration of media consumption, and frequency of stadium attendance. It was found that the most influential factor of sport participation that contributes to sense of belonging is frequency. Frequency of sport participation in both participant sport and spectator sport has a positive impact on sense of school, community, and national belonging. A pattern of gradual increase for sense of belonging correlating with the degree of frequency of participation was shown, whereby the more frequent the participation in sport, the higher the reported sense of belonging was.