Vulnerable groups at risk for sport and social exclusion

Abstract

Groups at-risk of social exclusion are heterogeneous with their own particularities. Within social sciences scientific literature, sport has been conveyed as a tool for social inclusion of vulnerable groups. This study sought to understand the experiences of these groups and compile the data to shed light on some of the most excluded groups by creating a framework to allow for more clear and distinct logic to participate or not in sport. The study focuses on: youth, people with disabilities, substance abusers, gender, immigrants, senior citizens, and the homeless. A systematic search was conducted yielding a total of 60 articles and analyzed with Atlas-Ti. The evidence showed vulnerable groups are not homogeneous with their own special characteristics important for development and implementations of interventions; all sport programs and activities studied, fulfilled a social function and aimed at solving a problem associated with a group at-risk for social exclusion.