A Survey of the Interrelation Between Sports and Persistence Among Students in Five Countries

Abstract

The goal of our survey has been to reveal the interrelation between students’ doing sports and the subjective indicators of their persistence in their studies in Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Romania. In the neighboring countries, the students of ethnic Hungarian, minority institutions were involved in the research. The theoretical background for our research was constituted by the development model as well as the institutional integrational model. For the analyses, we used the database of Center for Higher Education Research and Development, Hungary ( N = 2017). Our results contradict the integrational model, as membership in a sports club reduces the persistence of the student concerned, regardless of the gender, the home country of the student’s institution, and the effects of the major social background variables.