LGBTQ+ Youth’s Experiences and Engagement in Physical Activity: A Comprehensive Content Analysis

Abstract

Research suggests that sexual and gender minority (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning; LGBTQ+) youth report avoiding physical activity settings (e.g., physical education class, locker rooms, and sport fields) due to feeling both unsafe and uncomfortable. These feelings and experiences might deter LGBTQ+ youth from achieving well-documented physical, cognitive, and social-emotional benefits that are often associated with physical activity and sport involvement. A 20-year (1998–2018) content analysis methodology was employed to obtain a more detailed understanding of LGBTQ+ youth’s participation and engagement in physical activity and sport. Minimal literature was obtained (n = 13 studies), along with an overall pattern that sexual minority youth engage in less physical activity than other populations of students. This disparity was more conclusive for sexual minority males then sexual minority females. One study was inclusive of transgender youth and suggested that transgender youth participated in sport to a similar degree as their cisgender peers; though overall, transgender youth felt less safe in typically gender-segregated spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms. This review shines light on discrepancies of engagement and feelings of safety in the physical activity and sport context among LGBTQ+ youth. This review further delineates methodological characteristics of the yielded studies as a means to comprehensively review this body of literature.

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Adolescent Research Review (2019) 4:169–185
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-019-00110-4
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
LGBTQ+ Youth’s Experiences andEngagement inPhysical Activity:
AComprehensive Content Analysis
ScottB.Greenspan1 · CatherineGrith1· RyanJ.Watson2
Received: 1 December 2018 / Accepted: 29 January 2019 / Published online: 18 February 2019
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Abstract
Research suggests that sexual and gender minority (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning; LGBTQ+)
youth report avoiding physical activity settings (e.g., physical education class, locker rooms, and sport fields) due to feel-
ing both unsafe and uncomfortable. These feelings and experiences might deter LGBTQ+ youth from achieving well-
documented physical, cognitive, and social-emotional benefits that are often associated with physical activity and sport
involvement. A 20-year (1998–2018) content analysis methodology was employed to obtain a more detailed understanding
of LGBTQ+ youth’s participation and engagement in physical activity and sport. Minimal literature was obtained (n = 13
studies), along with an overall pattern that sexual minority youth engage in less physical activity than other populations of
students. This disparity was more conclusive for sexual minority males then sexual minority females. One study was inclusive
of transgender youth and suggested that transgender youth participated in sport to a similar degree as their cisgender peers;
though overall, transgender youth felt less safe in typically gender-segregated spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.
This review shines light on discrepancies of engagement and feelings of safety in the physical activity and sport context
among LGBTQ+ youth. This review further delineates methodological characteristics of the yielded studies as a means to
comprehensively review this body of literature.
Keywords LGBTQ· Youth· Physical activity· Content analysis
Introduction
While physical activity is associated with a host of positive
outcomes for young people (e.g., Ahn and Fedewa 2011;
The United States Department of Health and Human Ser-
vices [USDHHS], 2018) and public health guidelines posit
that youth ages 6–17 engage in 60min of physical activity
per day (USDHHS 2018), sexual and gender minority (e.g.,
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning;
LGBTQ+) youth specifically avoid athletic spaces (e.g.,
physical education class, locker rooms, and sport fields) due
to feeling unsafe or uncomfortable (e.g., Kosciw etal. 2018).
Such feelings and experiences might be attributed to the
emphasis of traditional gender roles (Clarke 2012) as well
as the embeddedness of hegemonic masculinity (Anderson
2002) within such contexts.
With the goal of advancing this field, Greenspan etal.
(2017) employed a nine-journal content analysis of LGBTQ
youth’s experiences in school-based athletics. The authors
focused their review on journals serving specific disciplines
including school psychology, school counseling, and physi-
cal education. However, no relevant literature was uncov-
ered. The authors suggested that a more comprehensive con-
tent analysis would likely be a more generative approach to
further exploring physical activity among LGBTQ+ popula-
tions. Thus, the impetus for this current study was to engage
in a broader content analysis of LGBTQ youth’s experiences
in physical activity and sport.
* Scott B. Greenspan
sgreenspan@umass.edu
1 Department ofStudent Development, College ofEducation,
University ofMassachusetts Amherst, 813 North Pleasant
Street, 01002Amherst, MA, USA
2 Department ofHuman Development andFamily Studies,
University ofConnecticut, 348 Mansfield Road, U-1058,
06269Storrs, CT, USA
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