How do peer groups impact sporting practices during the sensitive transition from childhood to adolescence (ages 12–14)? Based on a DFG-funded longitudinal study, the publication of Benjamin Zander “Sport from the Perspective of Peer Groups” reveals how peer groups influence adolescents‘ participation in sport in both school and leisure settings. We have conducted an interview with the author about his findings.
Dear Benjamin Zander, what is your publication “Sport from the Perspective of Peer Groups. Exploring Collectively Shared Knowledge in School and Leisure During Early Adolescence” about?
The publication aims to systematically examine sport from the perspective of peer groups. It not only examines sporting practices themselves, but in particular how collectively shared knowledge of adolescents is reconstructed during the transition from childhood to adolescence (ages 12–14). The study is guided by three central research questions:
- Which collective orientations structure peer groups’ sporting practices?
- Which conjunctive spaces of experience are these practices embedded in (e.g. physical education, club sport, informal sport)?
- What alignments can be reconstructed between collective orientations and conjunctive spaces of experience?
The study develops, for the first time, a comprehensive perspective across different sport settings from the perspective of peer groups. Theoretically, it is grounded in a sociology-of-knowledge and practice-theoretical approach, following a clearly reconstructive perspective. The primary aim is to describe and understand stocks of knowledge, with potential implications derived only in a subsequent step. Moreover, the book seeks to close a research gap in sport-pedagogical research using empirical evidence on the largely overlooked collective dimension of sport and to strengthen recognition of the peer group as an independent field of research within sport pedagogy.
How exactly did you collect the data for the study? Were there any challenges?
The data were collected as part of a DFG-funded longitudinal study, comprising group discussions with 16 distinct peer groups interviewed at two points in time—first at age 12 and again at age 14. These groups differed in terms of gender (female/male), migration background (present/absent) and school type (Gymnasium/Hauptschule) to represent a deliberately heterogeneous sample.
One key challenge was identifying peer groups as such in the first place. The study applied a relatively narrow concept of peer group, focusing on adolescents who are genuinely friends, spend time together, and engage in shared activities.
A related challenge was that access to the groups was primarily organised through schools, where groups were pre-selected by teachers. Rather than treating this as a limitation, the background of these group compositions was used as additional, insightful data, enabling an investigation of how adolescents constitute themselves as a specific group through shared experiences.
I also faced certain methodological challenges in the analysis of the data. Reconstructing implicit, action-guiding orientations and stocks of knowledge required a complex, multi-step procedure using the documentary method.
Which findings of your study were particularly striking? Did something surprise you?
A central finding is the identification of five key orientations structuring peer groups’ sporting practices:
- Pursuit of a regulated lifestyle
- Personal development
- Challenge-seeking among peers
- Sense of community within the peer group
- Individual autonomy
What is particularly striking is the combination of diversity and stability. The orientations vary considerably between peer groups, yet remain relatively stable within each peer groups throughout the transition phase between ages 12 and 14.
Another surprising finding concerns the extent to which peer groups, despite their internal dynamics, remain strongly embedded in overarching conjunctive spaces of experience, such as gender. The study also reveals a pronounced segregation along lines of school type and educational level, which is especially significant given the hierarchically structured nature of the German education system. Peer groups from higher-track school types tend to be more strongly engaged in sport (e.g. in club sport), while those from lower-track school types often participate only in physical education or are largely disengaged from sport altogether.
Physical education itself emerged as a particularly ambiguous space of experience. Rather than being experienced uniformly, it is structured around three cross-group reference points: the teacher, classmates and sport itself, giving rise to very different conceptions of what a ‘good’ physical education lesson looks like.
Which questions emerged following your research? Are you building on any of these aspects in your current research?
The study opens up a range of further research questions, including:
- How are these orientations first established during childhood?
- How do they develop from adolescence into adulthood?
- How do peer group dynamics evolve in the context of extended all-day schooling?
Another important avenue for future research lies in a more differentiated analysis of peer groups, particularly with regard to vulnerable groups, such as:
- peer groups that are distant from sport, and
- groups shaped less by friendship and shared positive experiences than by experiences of exclusion.
These aspects are currently being explored in ongoing research.
What insights can be drawn from your study regarding the promotion of both formal and informal sports activities for young people?
A key insight is that the peer group should be recognised as an independent category of actors. When designing sport programmes – whether in school-related or leisure-time contexts – peer groups deserve explicit consideration.
- Concrete implications include the following:
- Peer groups possess their own collectively shared knowledge about sport, which can be actively utilised;
- They represent a crucial point of access to young people;
- Sport programmes can be designed to address entire peer groups, particularly in informal sport contexts.
At the same time, the influence of peer groups should not be overestimated: Many orientations are embedded in broader societal structures, such as educational inequalities that cannot be addressed through sport programmes alone.
Overall, the study demonstrates that peer groups are a key factor for both motivation and access to sport. Sport programmes therefore need to be sensitive to diversity, respect the autonomy of peer groups, and take social inequalities into account, ensuring that educators create genuine spaces for self-expression rather than seeing to control peer dynamics.
About Benjamin Zander
Since March 2025, Benjamin Zander has been Professor of Sport Science, with a focus on Sport and Society, at the University of Osnabrück (Germany). Prior to this, he briefly worked as a trainee teacher at a secondary school (2024–2025), following a period as Interim Professor of Sport Sociology at the University of Koblenz (2023).
From 2017 to 2023, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Göttingen. He completed his doctorate (Dr. phil.) at TU Dortmund in 2016 with a dissertation on lifeworld-oriented physical education.
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Sport from the Perspective of Peer Groups
Exploring Collectively Shared Knowledge in School and Leisure During Early Adolescence
by Benjamin Zander
